Dodge WC Pintle Hitch Rebuild

[Alxj64]

This thread is just to document things along the way as I overhaul this old Pintle hitch. Its pretty badly pitted in a few places but I think there is still enough cross section left in the release saddle that I would feel comfortable using it to pull vehicles out on the beach and stuff at Oregon Inlet, NC. / Cape Hatteras NP.

The hitch was found in the floor of an old farm truck. It was given to my father by an old farmer 30 years ago and on the floor of the truck it sat for that duration. I bought my Carryall and a few weeks later stumbled on the hitch while on a completely different adventure involving the '68 IH 1600 Loadstar it was stored in.

Anyways, had a friend blast it at his day job (his boss said it was fine) and discovered quite a bit of pitting and the pins and such are trashed. Externally the pintle portion of the hitch is in quite good shape, its just the relase handle thats pretty bad off.

I am hoping to get into cutting some pins for it this weekend to put it all back together again. I was able to get the pin for the roller out of it last night. I was hoping that grinding the swedged heads and then pressing out the pin would be a viable option... Not so much... instead it required over drilling the pin and then driving the roller through the saddle opening. I'll update more pictures later.

[Doc Dave]

This is a neat little job you have.
Do you have a lathe at home or will you do it at your work?
I pulled someone out who was stuck at Corolla Beach in their AWD Mazda, using a tow rope hooked to this same pintle as you show, in my B-3 PW.

[wnarron]

Worth in NCAA

I have this same pintle hitch that I installed on my '68 wm300. There is a local source for a few of them in very good condition. Around $50 excluding shipping.

Worth

[Alxj64]

This is a neat little job you have.
Do you have a lathe at home or will you do it at your work?
I pulled someone out who was stuck at Corolla Beach in their AWD Mazda, using a tow rope hooked to this same pintle as you show, in my B-3 PW.

I've got a small Atlas/Craftsman 12x36 in my garage and just recently added a Clausing 8520 Vertical Mill to the corner as well; its only a 7x24 bed though, its a stand alone knee mill, American Made though.






Here is the condition of the parts I am replacing...

[Alxj64]

Coming together... Waiting on a spring, gotta swedge the saddle roller pin and then clean it all a little better and get it painted / coated.

[CSCameron]

Good Job!

[Greg Coffin]

How do you plan to swedge the roller pin?

[Alxj64]

I was thinking about cutting a notch in each end and then using a chisel to kinda split the head a little to get it to wedge in place. That'll be my first attempt. My other thoughts are to just tack it in a few spots with the TIG... whenever it shows up. Its been on order for a bit but should be here next week!

[Greg Coffin]

I think TIG might be the way to go, and it's really tough to wait for something like that to show up. I'm worse than a 5 year old on Christmas Eve!

[Alxj64]

I think TIG might be the way to go, and it's really tough to wait for something like that to show up. I'm worse than a 5 year old on Christmas Eve!

Same here, and its been one of those things I've been shopping for over a decent duration and finally stacked enough side paper to buy something new rather than a used machine off of craigslist.

The spring I spec'd from Mcmaster showed up. Not exactly perfect but it works really well regardless.




And a quick cell phone video. I think you have to click on the second picture for video to play.

[CSCameron]

Excellent! Looks like it works as it should.

[Alxj64]

For anyone who has one of these and wants to replace the spring... the one I used is from Mcmaster Carr. www.mcmaster.com, and I love that store, just a little pricey and have to buy in "Package" similar to Fastenal, but I totally understand and you can never have too much extra "hardware"... giggle.


Part number for the spring is:

1692K43

Its stainless steel so you don't have to worry about re-coating it (unless you are trying to hide it) to prevent additional rusting.