Welding is not necessary. I came up with a different plan. It’s a bit long winded and complicated so I’ll just give the short version. I needed a pipe or tube that fit over the pintle hook shaft. In addition, it has to fit inside the pintle spring and have a feature that holds the spring in compression, at least I think that’s what it does. Anyway, I have an abundance of steel pipe that used to be the plumbing for the fire truck. I cut off a section that was the same length as the flange. After cleaning it up, I needed to find something that would create a ring, like the original, thereby holding the spring in place. I just happened to have a busted gear that came off my fifth wheel trailer. Even though there was a shaft that ran up the middle of it, it was the correct size. Time to adapt, improvise and overcome. Ground and cut the center out of the gear. Then cut the gear “nubs(?)”, not sure what you’d call them… next was cutting it in half. Did that, set up a grinding tool in the bench drill press. Ground out the center till the pipe could be tapped into place. Put the two parts together very carefully. I’ve no idea what type metal the gear was made from but it made some real cool sparks cutting into it! I’ve got to figure out a method for locking the ring into place on the pipe. Maybe a couple set screws? When the original and my homemade flanges are ready, I’ll set them up and see what happens. The pics are of the original flange, next to my concoction.
