Normal wear or time to replace?

The rear leaf spring brackets on my duster are split in the cylindrical part. The split is probably 1 mm wide on one side and more like 2-3 wide on the other. They run the length of the cylinder. Is this split normal so I can re-use the rear brackets, or should I buy new ones? I figure they were just a split cylinder originally but don't know if the width of the seam now is a problem.