Brake caliper brackets

jcm183

New Forum User
Greetings all,

First post here, so mods please move if this should be in "Wrenching Parties" instead.

My (soon to be my son's) 1995 XJ's front brake calipers have the typical wear spots on the caliper brackets, which are causing the pads to get stuck and not "float" as designed.

I've read somewhere that it's possible to fill in the low spots using a welding rod. I'm not a welder so I'm in search of either a shop who would be willing to perform this type of repair or a member who could assist. I do have access to welding equipment and supplies.

I'm certainly open to another solution if one exists. I know I could replace the entire caliper bracket but that seems impractical if a simpler solution is possible.

Thanks!
 
aren’t those caliper brackets cast iron? That could be a PITA to fill with a weld bead, even with a TiG machine. And the heat would probably embrittle the rest of the metal matrix around the area of the weld. so even after you weld it, then spend who knows how long with a flat file getting it back down to profile, then you gotta worry about the whole bracket failing because it got brittle from the weld and you didn’t know it until it broke when you made a panic stop.

I‘m just gonna spend the $60 for some new caliper brackets, take half an hour to replace them, and be done with it.
 
The caliper "brackets" are forged into the outer knuckles. The knuckles run about $120 per side, and require a good afternoon's work to replace if everything goes right.
https://www.quadratec.com/vehicle/1984-2001-cherokee-xj/steering-and-brakes/steering-knuckles

We repaired our XJ by welding the low spots and using a file to bring it back flush about 6 or so years ago with success so far. Many brake pad kits will come with stainless steel covers, that are consumable and fit over the cast knuckle section and provide a wear surface. Make sure you install these, as they help protect the cast surfaces.
 
I was wrong about them being cast iron, they’re probably nodular iron (I went down a whole cast iron rabbit hole last night reading about it afterward). The nodular iron uses spherical graphite nodules in the alloy whereas cast iron doesn’t. So they’re a lot stronger than “regular” cast iron.
 
The caliper "brackets" are forged into the outer knuckles. The knuckles run about $120 per side, and require a good afternoon's work to replace if everything goes right.
https://www.quadratec.com/vehicle/1984-2001-cherokee-xj/steering-and-brakes/steering-knuckles

We repaired our XJ by welding the low spots and using a file to bring it back flush about 6 or so years ago with success so far. Many brake pad kits will come with stainless steel covers, that are consumable and fit over the cast knuckle section and provide a wear surface. Make sure you install these, as they help protect the cast surfaces.
Thank you for the pointer. Hopefully I can find someone to assist with the welding as I don't have the skill set to tackle that on my own.

If not, I'll go the replacement route but I'm probably asking for trouble since I can easily see getting going down of rabbit hole of needing to replace additional parts once everything's apart.
 
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