X play in track bar=Y play in steering wheel

The back side of the axle mount for my track bar is wallowed (I'll fix that soon enough), and the wife helped me tonight by moving the steering wheel for me while I checked for clicks and loose stuff. Only the axle end of the track bar visibly moved (maybe 1/4"). Roughly how much looseness does this translate to at the steering wheel? My steering feels super loose to me while moving at a decent speed, but at slower speeds and stopped it feels tighter (minus the occasional click/pop and movement from the track bar). I just feel like that can't be all it is. I'm also not very concerned about control arm bushings--that isn't it and the LCAs are getting replaced with WJ arms in the next couple of weeks anyway.

Timber said:

The back side of the axle mount for my track bar is wallowed (I'll fix that soon enough), and the wife helped me tonight by moving the steering wheel for me while I checked for clicks and loose stuff. Only the axle end of the track bar visibly moved (maybe 1/4"). Roughly how much looseness does this translate to at the steering wheel? My steering feels super loose to me while moving at a decent speed, but at slower speeds and stopped it feels tighter (minus the occasional click/pop and movement from the track bar). I just feel like that can't be all it is. I'm also not very concerned about control arm bushings--that isn't it and the LCAs are getting replaced with WJ arms in the next couple of weeks anyway.

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1/4" of slop is a lot. I had around 1/4" play in the track bar on my MJ when I bought it and it was all over the road. Down-right scary. Fixed the track bar and it was fine.

I'm pretty sure the shank on the bolt for the axle end of the trac bar, is an odd size. I once tried a bolt out of stock with the proper threads and still had a lot of play. Found an OEM bolt and much of the slop disappeared.

Yeah, I believe it's 11mm., so even a 3/8" bolt allows a tiny bit of movement. Thanks, guys. I'll get the rear hole fixed as soon as I can and as soon as I get a new spool of wire for the welder.

Well, I couldn't get the tip of my welder close enough to get a washer even tacked from the back, so I spread the mount a little with a big crescent wrench and welded a good-sized washer to the front of the rear hole. It really seems to have tightened it up. I can't believe that that little bit of slop amounted to that much squirrelliness at the steering wheel. If it works well for at least a week, I'll grind the washer out and put in a small plate of 1/8" or 3/16" to spread the load better and be done with it.
EDIT: Oh, yeah. While I was under there, I really started paying attention to the lower control arm mounts. Is mine goofy, or are everyone else's barely welded on, too? Mine look like just a couple inch-or-so long welds on each side of both pieces of each mount.