tie rods, etc...

I was planning on redoing the suspension on my '96. I was going to do new shocks, springs, and bushings. How do I know if I need to replace the tie rods, ball joints, etc? I figure if I'm in there, might ought to do everything, but I'm on a tight budget. Thanks.

Jack the front end up, both wheels off the ground. Make sure the steering wheel is locked on the column(keys out of ign.) At 9 and 3 oclock on the tires, try your hardest to turn the wheels yourself. If you get any movement at all, you have a bad tie rod or joint some where. Also do this at 12 and 6. You should get no movement at all. If you do get play, have a friend turn the wheel back and forth while you look at all the ends and joints. You will see one or more playing around.

For ball joints your best bet is to jack up each side (jack under axle) just enough to get a big lever under the wheel. Now lever upward on that wheel (it helps to have two people on this), and while doing so look at the ball joints (or I should say, the seal between the ball joint and the steering knuckle), especially the top one. Any movement at all = a bad ball joint, probably the upper. When it's jacked up, you can also pull on the top of the wheel, and check for sideways movement at the top, but if you see that, the ball joint is very bad, so the first test may catch the problem sooner. A bad ball joint may also cause inside edge wear on the tires which may be mistaken for toe-out.

The ball joints on an XJ can go for over 200 thousand miles easily, so I wouldn't consider this a routine maintenance item.