Restoration of a NATO hitch 

This may be a bit simple for some readers, but there's a few out there with seized hitches that don't know.

This was not my hitch, it's a blokes off the S3 club forum. He didn't know much about the lump on his rear xmember and it wasn't until I started going on about fixed eye trailers, that he realised his was seized.

Anyway, I received the hich looking like this.

It was well and truly seized, you couldn't unlock the jaw, or unlock the bottom lock to test the rotation.

First thing was to remove all the muck and old grease. I put it in a bucket of engine cleaner and left it for 24 hours. I also removed the 'C' clips from both the pivot pins, the grease nipple and the little bolt that holds the chains for the pins on.

A few things came loose like the bottom locking jaws, but nothing else. So, I put it in the vice and went to work with a 2lb ball pein hammer. That freed it up to rotate a bit, but it was still an effort. The actual jaw still would not unlock.

I'd already removed the 'C' clips to allow the cleaner to work

So I knocked out the pivot pin for the jaw. This took a bit of doing, but once it was out the jaw was levered free.

The mating surfaces were well rusty, so I cleaned them up with wire wool.  So I knocked out the pivot pin for the jaw. This took a bit of doing, but once it was out the jaw was levered free.

These were well stuck. They are thread locked in, so it took a bit of heat and a 24 hour soaking in Plus Gas releasing fluid before my feeble wrists could unscrew them.

Once the plates were freed, I had to put the hook in the vice and hammer the backplate upwards to free it all. Some of this effort was due to the suction of the grease in the hitch.

Anyway, that was it. I put everything in the engine cleaner and then wired wooled all the rust off.
Everything is now clean and reasonably shiny. I didn't take the jaw locking catch apart as it has a strong spring in it and I've had bad experiences with them before. Anyway once it had been soaked in WD40, it worked with no problem.

That's nearly all there is to it. Once I'd got it stripped and cleaned, I used Nitromors to get all the old manky paint off. I then partially reassembled it ready for spraying. I did this by first oiling the bearing pin on the backplate, I didn't use grease as I was just putting a thin film on to aid assembly and stop rusting. I put the bearing plates back on and after applying some threadlock to the screws, screwed it down tight. I left the jaw seperate. I put the old grease nipple back in to stop paint getting inside the bearing. Then I gave it a few coats of Red Oxide Primer. Once all that had dried, I reassembled the jaw, used new 'C' clips on the pivot pins (after lightly oiling them) and used some new chain to attach the pins.

This is how it all turned out. 6 hours work and a fiver in parts.

Nige