I sheared off all four steering arm studs on my passenger side hi-steer arm on the 'con a few weeks ago. As a trail fix, we welded the steering arm to the knuckle to get me thru.

Now that I'm home, I've ground down the welds and was able to remove the arm from the knuckle.

Now that I've got it all torn apart and am ready to rebuild, a friend of mine has raised doubts in my mind as to whether I can still re-use the knuckle because the heat from the welding may have weakened or warped the knuckle.

It's a '76 front axle, and I've got spare '76 birfs/inners. If I go ahead & do the minitruck knuckle conversion, I'll have to get new high-steer arms because the bolt pattern is different & I'm not sure my birfs will work because they're the funky '76 bifs.

As usual with most of us, I don't have a ton of ca$h to work with, but I'd like to get the best bang for my buck - either rebuild the current '76 knuckle, OR find another '76 knuckle to rebuild, OR go minitruck & have to buy new steering arms ( & maybe birfs).

What do you guys think I should do?

The knuckle is cast iron, so I don't think that heating it is going to be a problem other than welding on it might have produced some cracking. I would be more worried about the arm, since it may be alloy, but the critical parts of the arm (the arms) should have been well outside the heat affected zone. You might call the manufacturer and see if they are heat treated.

I would prefer to have all mini truck parts because they are more stout, but if your knuckle and arm are OK I would just go ahead and use it.

Find another 76 or so knuckle.
actually like 60 something to 78 should work well :-)

Jason-

you forget, 1960-1975 knuckle castings don't have disk brake caliper ears!.

Junkyard, -I'd upgrade to mini truck now while you are looking at it (in pieces). 1979-1990 production (meaning '79-'90 LC AND '79-'85 mini) of the same parts will yield more and more trail spares. 1976-1978 are an odd lot (birfields longer, non aisin hubs etc).

$125 should get you a knuckle out mini set up (w/ birfields for now). I'd do it and release the old technology.....

I suppose that if I go minitruck, I can sell my birfs & current hi-steer arms to help finance the minitruck parts ... hmmm ...

Anybody know where I can get a complete minitruck frontend in the Sacramento area?

Look in the thrifties, recycler etc. I bought a complete! '85 mini truck axle on friday for $80, with new calipers and rotors. They are out there...

As for cast iron, I think they are cast steel(tough as hell-took 30 minutes to cut one up with a sawzall for a rear disc brake bracket...)

Is that the same knuckle as a 71 axle? The smaller bolt pattern for the steering arm? If so I have both the R & L laying around. I make you a deal, I'm not too far away. Let me know.
On a side note, the same thing happened to me a couple of weeks ago. I was able to back out 2 of the studs, and use 2 from the drivers side to limp home. Needless to say me and my old lady cinched down the harness all the way home. That was a fun ride.

Thanks, but I've made up my mind to go with the minitruck stuff & sell my current hi-steer arms & disk brake stuff.

Anybody in the Sacramento area know where I can get ahold of a '79-'85 minitruck front end?