How much play in the front drive shaft should I have?

1996 XJ 4.0 AW4 trans RE6160 5.5" long arm lift, 4:56 gears, front ARB air locker.

I was greasing some zerks on the jeep today and I noticed I can rotate the front drive shaft about 1/2 inch, maybe a little more, in either direction.

Is this too much play?

No. 1/4 to 1/2 inch rotation is about normal. Should be about the same on the rear drive shaft also. It's the gear slop in the tcase and diff's. Nothing to sweat yet. Now, if you remove the driveshaft and can move the pinion/yoke on the differental in and out any at all, that's something to fix.

rotating - not a problem

side to side movement - problem