Steering knuckle question

Hey guys, I just pulled this D30 out of a 93 XJ and noticed the slides for the brake pads had notches in them, was wondering how bad this is, and if I need to replace the knuckle before swapping into my 2wd 94.

I welded mine with a MIG. Cleaned it up good, turned the heat up two notches (one step less than max) and put a good point/spot type weld in there (slow count of 3-4), wire feed a little past middle dial. Cleaned it up again (wire wheel on a drill) and repeated as many times as it took to fill. Then dressed it with a file. Been fine for the last five years or so.

Cast blows a lot of carbon, clean often to reduce the carbon buildup.

Thanks, I'm going to try that.

Knuckles should be the same, maybe swap knuckles with your current ones.

Yeah, 93 and 94 knuckles are going to be the same 2wd to 4wd, in fact the unit bearings should be the same too. Might be wise to keep your old loaded knuckles or at least loaded unit bearings as emergency limp-home spares, if you blow a ujoint or axleshaft you can swap one in whole with the dummy stub shaft in it pretty fast and just drive home on that.

Those notches should weld up pretty easy though, people do it all the time. Fill em in, flap wheel it flat with the rest of the knuckle, done.

Knuckles came out good, welded and cleaned up really easy, and i figured the 2wd to 4wd would be the same, but I wanted to make it a little easier to swap, figured I'd keep the old ones as backup anyway, but I didnt even think to keep them as emergency use to get home, thanks!