possible to shoot a quick video of you testing the BJs with focus on that upper C? I'm very anal about ball joints cuz have had this issue several times. reading you're description, I'm envisioning you using 4' pipe under the wheel, and then trying to lift the pipe up. am I wrong on that? it's actually easier to use something like a shovel, with the spade under the tire, then step on the handle, using the leverage to force upward pressure on the tire. Maybe you've used something as an axis with the tube and I'm just thinking about it wrong.

when someone is turning the steering wheel back and forth (sometimes useful when both no power and with vehicle running), you see very little movement in the TB joints?

wish i still had a video of movement with one of my bad BJs. The sound is concerning to me.

 

Here's a couple pics of using an indicator on mine. For the up/down play I just jacked it up, zero'd the indicator, then let it down -- It's easier this way when alone. For lateral play you still have to horse it by hand. If they are in spec, no reason to fix what ain't broke.

 

 

Let’s start with these pictures of factory BJ internals. First is courtesy the web, the 2nd is a permalink to dissection picture courtesy of Ronjenx –



Ronjenx BJ dissection -
https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/modi...5/#post4159010

There is no room for play in that joint….not like what is being shown on that video. I don’t care what any dial indicator says, BJ’s don’t have that much play, nor make a knocking noise. I'm sorry to report I still believe those BJs are bad.

 

Just eyeballing, it looks like about 0.030", but it could be more. The video is showing the axial play from the lower ball joint, and the spec is 0.050". Mine have ~0.027" and the video looks similar -- A dial indicator properly setup is going to measure it. The 0.050" is a maximum, and it would be interesting to know what an OEM joint has after several thousand miles.

To reiterate, that up/down play is from the lower joint. The upper joint takes a radial (side to side) load but not any axial thrust (up/down) load. RonJenx did a nice write-up on this with pics. The specs are less than 0.050" axial (up/down) play (from the lower joint) and the upper joint is allowed up to 0.060" radial play.

Because of the way the taper bushing in the upper joint will take up wear to a point (see RonJenx ball joint link above for pics), near zero radial play (not up/down axial play) is what I've measured on mine. Once the play starts increasing, the tapered bushing has done all the wear compensation it can. I'd replace it well before 0.060".

 

Thanks for all the good info. I certainly don’t mind replacing the ball joints, I just hope to get the issue resolved.