Thanks for saying something Don! I broke out my old, yellowing-paged service manual and it gives a .070 spec for axial runout from the arm to the ballstud with the weight of the car on the control arm and the wheel being lifted. I'll get out and check that this morning.

Oh, the ball joints were part of a street/strip suspension kit from Just Suspension. I gave tehm them a call this morning. They were going to exchange them without question. I got my car up in the air per the manual with the weight on the lower control arms with the front wheel "dangling" and the Axial runout was .025 to .035 . The spec is for .070, so they are good.

I did find the idler arm was way sloppy on the bolt that passes through it with the ball stud part of the arm moving up and down 1/3 of an inch or more. I'm going to put my original one back on for now. I'm told the bushing is serviceable, so I'll shop for that part before throwing it in there.