I'm tellin you guys.. Do something about the problem rather than complaining. Its not that hard of a fix.

Take the idler to any competent machine shop and have them mill the inner radius out 1/16" to a depth of 3/4" (or deeper.. mill as needed to allow a nice fit into the Calmini idler arm mount) top and bottom to fit two spherical bearings.

Have them cut down the original sleeve to fit between the two bearings so there will be no static side loading on the spherical joints once its all tightened up. Reinstall, Torque the bolt down. Grease it up and go wheeling..

Here is the part you will need.. order two of these and take them with the arm to the machine shop.

McMaster-Carr Extended life ball joint bearing. #2699K13 .. $23.07

through hole I.D.: 1"
Outer Diameter: 1 5/8"
spherical bearing width: 7/8"
casing width: 3/4"
Spherical bearing swivel: 14°
Static Radial load capacity (lbs): 37,700

http://www.mcmaster.com/

Any machine shop will do this for you for less than $100. If you have a friend with a good metalworking lathe, you could have it done for a case of beer.

The Calmini arms are made from billet 4140 heat treated steel alloy. This material will have NO problem handling the use of these bearings. My steering was constructed from heat treated 4130 and had the bearings closer together (ie: more radial load and impacts exerted on them) and it was just fine.

BTW, I ran smaller 25,000lb rated spherical bearings on my custom centerlink setup for over a year with no issues.. I sold it when I SAS'd and its still being used today on another truck, after 3 years of hard abuse, on the original bearings with *zero* slop. And it didnt even have grease zerks to lube the bearings.