Bushings or "Johnny Joints"?

[curtis]

Mike you can use a hole saw in a drill press to cut off the old bushings.

[inVERt'D]

The cheap ones they sold were outright junk. Their better ones the chrome on the spherical part flakes. They do not hold up as well as Currie joints, those are simple, work well cheap to repair if need be and very durable.

You can't go wrong with the Johnny Joint, but the forged Ballistic joints are as solid as anything. People had problems with the hollow nylatron bushings, but the solid ones apparently hold up well.

[Mike]

Johnny joints are my first choice so far. They seem to be proven and all the options are pretty much the same price. But I am still toying with the idea of the MetalCloak joints. Has anybody used these before. It seems like the ride would be better with these. ???

[aw12345]

Ride wouldn't really be much better. One thing you need to consider with the Metal cloak bushings they may have good flex built into the bushing, but the rotational part of the bushing hasn't been adressed. In other words with the kind a fire roading we like, bushing life is limited

[4xfiend]

There is no issue with the ride on Johnny joints. The only people who say they ride worse than bushings are those who've never used them. My Jeep used to have the crappy ProComp short arms with bushings on both ends. When I took them off and replaced them with the Currie arms with Johnny joints at both ends my ride got better.

[Mike]

Great feedback on all fronts! I definitely learned a good bit about the options. I just ordered JJs from Brian Nash and Tri-County Gear. I'll have them tomorrow.

[RAT]

Great feedback on all fronts! I definitely learned a good bit about the options. I just ordered JJs from Brian Nash and Tri-County Gear. I'll have them tomorrow.

J-j-j-j-johnny joints.... Lets get em welded in bfam!

[Mike]

J-j-j-j-johnny joints.... Lets get em welded in bfam!

Done! Well, actually, they've been done for a few days. But I thought that I would share a few pics of how it they turned out.

The barrel of the JJ is slightly bigger than the original barrel for the bushing:


I cut off the old ones and the new barrels fit perfectly in their place:


Putting the guts into the joint took a good bit of pressure. A couple of well chosen sockets and a bench vise helped to get the clip into place:


The finished product fit into the to Jeep quite nicely:


I like the ride on the road, but then again, all of the joints are new on the axle, so I can't say how much is related to the JJs. Regardless, I am happy with them so far.

[mkjeepers]

It looks like they are now putting the grease fitting on the barrel - mine had the fitting on the end of the mounting bolt.

[ECV Jeep]

Looking good Mike. Glad that Mr. Green is happy again and up on all fours.

[RAT]

Good job BFAM