Seized pintle hook finally loose

[cranetruck]

After many months of half lame attempts to get the pintle loose, using any number of "penetrants" without success, I finally went at it with the 10lb sledge and it budged!
Amazing what a little rust can do to hold something in place. The grease cavity was dry and the zerk fitting to it broken, so water did its thing.
This gives me some hope in getting the stubborn torque rods loose as well...just not enough room to swing the BHF.

 

[bigelk50]

Congrats on the win of the battle. When those things get stuck they are a pain!

 

[maddawg308]

Good job, Bjorn, keep up the good work!

 

[frodobaggins]

Everyone should have a BFH in their arsenal.

It's amazing what the proper amount of force or the proper application of leverage can accomplish.

 

[bigelk50]

Yup, just need the right tool for the right job.

 

[Boatcarpenter]

Bjorn,
Do you have a photographer on retainer, you get pics of everything, with you in them.
BC

 

[cranetruck]

Yes, my kids.

 

[datsunaholic]

When my USNR unit got our M109 in early 2000 the pintle hook was stuck 90 degrees sideways, and for all intents had probably been stuck that way since Desert Storm. It took pumping lube oil in the zerk, a BFH, and a long metal bar through the hook as a lever to get the thing moving. Once greased up it stayed functional. PMs hadn't been done much on that truck.

 

[rideni]

I had the same problem after using it to connect a chain loop to pull a stump. it went sidewways, the zerg fitting is gone, I took the 20lb sledge hammer and drove that home.

 

[rockman]

bjorn, nice work and like those steel toed slides....

 

[roscoe]

I like the cabin. Pretty cool.

 

[Stretch44875]

Have any pics of the stuck torque rods? Never mind, I saw one in the other thread. Like the jackhammer!

This is a thread I put up a while ago, shows some tricks I used to pop the rods loose.

http://www.steelsoldiers.com/deuce-...dogbone-mod-removal.html?highlight=torque+rod

 

[cranetruck]

Thanks Roscoe, the cabin is a previous "handywork", started to build it in '89, once you move in, it just never gets finished.

Stretch, the torque rods are a little different on this truck, there is only one end with a rubber bushing and it's bolted via the cross piece so it can't "fall off". The other end is a sealed-for-life steel ball joint type of thing, so it can't fall off either, no need for the safety rigging mentioned in the link above.
The reason I have to remove them is to "cook" the ball joint to loosen it up and re-install it.

Using a torch is also out of the question since the surrounding cavities are foam filled (remember these trucks swim), so too much heat may cause some polyurethane to burn.
I also never like the torch thing, it's bound to upset any heat treatment to the tapered pin or its seat.
The wedge idea was tested on the stuck pintle, but only deformed the metal edges as the wedge (chisel) was driven in.
The jack hammer worked on one, so I'm encouraged by it and will use it again on the remaining eleven rods.

 

[Stretch44875]

I just mentioned the thread for getting them loose, didn't even think about the mod I had done. Hope they all pop out for you, I know some of them on the M108 were a real pain.

Dennis

 

[cranetruck]

Appreciate it!
Another thing is that they are not steel, but made of an aluminum alloy, and as such, very hard to find replacements for and have to come out "non-destructively".