Should the bushings on either end of the front control arms allow much movement side to side: angularly 3-4 inches -- not side to side along the bolt? Hope that makes sense.

I am chasing down a developing DW and just upgraded the trackbar bolt to a larger size which helped significantly since the mount was wallowed out. I unbolted the passenger side control arms from the axle and both would fairly easily allow me to move the free end several inches each way. When the uppers were still bolted up, I could rotate it a couple of degrees by hand fairly easily. To me, this seems like to much play but I honestly do not know for sure since it seems that JJ would allow even more play with less resistance. Hence the reason for my post here.

The Jeep has the factory arms and bushings with ~73,000 miles -- 30k stock, 30k with 2" BB, and the last 13K or so with RE 3.5" springs with mild-med offroading every other month or so, mostly DD.

When I removed my stock components at 4k miles, I do not remember there being any lateral play.

No they should not. Stock bushings when wheeled hard fail early. After replacing MANY sets of factory arms with new take offs, I finally wised up and listened to a couple guys with more experience than I will ever have and upgraded to Currie arms with JJ's on both ends. Several years later they are still tight as can be and my front end has NO vibe or wobble that it used to develop every few months before with the factory bushings. I used to grease my JJ's faithfully but after a few years, have backed off and do it when I think about it. They're still in great shape and show no worse for the wear, everything tight as new.

I'd recommend upgrading to arms with JJ's on both sides AND install the Currie front JJ upper housing kit as well to eliminate the front uppers and get JJ's there too. Has been one of the best improvements to my rig overall both on and off-road.

Best of Luck,

Mike

I kinda thought that was the case, now I have justification for the wife on that next upgrade...

3 - 4 inches total, or 3 -4 inches each way?

1.5 - 2 inches one way and the same the other for a total of 3 -4 inches of total swing with one side disconnected seems about right to me. (???)

If the tension is constant and doesn't have a "loose tooth" sort of feel, you might be OK.

Often you can tell by looking at the bushings when disconnected - the rubber will look ripped or the metal
sleeve isn't connected any more - but not always.



Yes, you will be able to swivel the JJ arms freely, but they will have ZERO longitudinal play (front-to-back).
Also, if you grab a fully connected JJ arm and push and pull on it, it will have ZERO lateral play.
It will twist in the mounts.

The looser the rubber "Clevite" gets, the more play you have in EVERY direction (not good).

My RE rubber bushings have a heap of play even when new, might try weld on som JJs.
Only get a couple of wheelin trips in and they are flogged out

I think I am going to start with the cheap stuff first:
Steering stabilizer
GOOD trackbar and bracket
then control arms.

Sometime in there I'll start on TRE's but they are all fairly new.