The topic of which is the ideal control arm joint comes up often. "Ideal" is sometimes relative. Johnny Joints have their share of fans and there are also very valid debates about their shortcomings when used in some parts of the country; while they are rebuildable, maintenance is definitely some level of effort (see
@Mike_H's threads for details).
After some thoughtful deliberation, for the orange jeep, it was decided move away from the Johnny Joint for this build and go with Clevites. One of Blaine's mantras is to build something with very low maintenance, high durability, and any item that does need maintenance, be very easy to work on. Given my low skill level, the fact that it rains here a lot and there is some mud in the early spring time when I like to get out to explore, that the jeep will see some salted roads in the wintertime when I go snowshoeing and such, Clevites seemed the right choice. Even if one wears it out, press out, press in new, done and back on the road without ever having to take anything apart. No maintenance, joint type does not affect ride quality.
So, we ordered actual Clevites made by Tenneco (Clevite 47855D, Clayton sells them). We looked for joint bodies and discovered that there was no manufacturer that made and sold both RH/LH threaded ones. Synergy only has all left hand threaded shanks and Clayton only has all right hand threaded shanks which is just silly. Nothing was to be found at Teraflex etc. After some time searching, Blaine simply decided to build his own using joint barrels from IRO made with 3/16" wall thickness DOM steel. Weld on threaded studs were ordered from Choppin' Block chassis products. There is some additional detail here regarding the size of the clevites and also the taps that we purchased. Instead of butchering the details with my less than perfect understanding, I will tag
@mrblaine to talk about that bit.
After some wizard welding magic that I picture in my head like this (and I am sure I have the wrong type of welding but just run with me here folks) ..
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This was the result
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The entire set ..
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.. and after Zinc plating. I cannot wait to see them in person.
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I told Blaine if he had sent me that picture after plating and asked me to guess where they were from, I would have 100% guessed wrongly as to how they came about. And yes, those clamps for the BMB tie rod and they got plated too. Because Blaine thinks of everything.
And finally this was the result after all the Clevites were pressed in. Jam nuts you see are the "FK Rod Ends" brand that Blaine ordered from Poly Performance. If you look carefully, you will see that Blaine sanded down two flat spots in each of them .. this is so that joint barrel can be supported when replacing the bushing to make removal easier. No detail gets overlooked, nothing is done without very careful and thoughtful deliberation.
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I will remember to come back and talk about how long it is before I replace once of these. The technically savvy amongst y'all can argue misalignment and all that fun jazz
I trust Blaine's word and it's all that I need.
Just don't mention "kevlar" or talk about that utter bullcrap dishonest tabletop misalignment video and we can be friends.
work is happening in the rear for storage of several things. I will post pics about that stuff at a later time when the story becomes more complete 
