The trailer ball has been loose on the Jeep’s hitch adapter for quite some time. I’ve tightened it before but this time I let it go for too long, it seemed…
I took the adapter off earlier this week to mount the bike rack, and figured I should tighten the ball before putting it back on. But the nut would! Not! Move! I tried lubing it, heating it, nothing. I put a pipe on a pipewrench and only managed to turn the vise no matter how hard I tightened the clamp…
Finally managed to wedge a pair of channel locks between the jaws and the bench, and that worked. Got the nut off intending to clean the threads and put it all back together, but…
Um…really left it too long. You can’t tighten a bolt that has no threads.
Gurg. Going to the auto parts store on Monday. That one’s on me.
ETA, several hours later: It just occurred to me now, because hindsight is always so useful, that what would have worked ever so much more elegantly would have been to put the adapter back on the Jeep upside-down and then apply the wrench and pipe. Ah, well…
Yep, that’s ready for a new one.
Any chance you could fit a solid spacer between the ball & the mount? Even 1/2” or so might give you a place where there still are threads…
Vice?? Possible, but more likely vise.
Hm. Funny I didn’t notice that, and me the spelling/grammar nazi…
Try a lock washer and a flat washer. For the amount of work that you do with it it should work fine.
Joel and Anonymous, I’ll say to you what I say to all the other spelling/grammar nazis: there… their… they’re… 🙂
Makes me wonder how the ball could have been “loose” in the bracket but the nut still be that tight???? Any chance the nut was cross-threaded in place?
The whole thing was loose on the bracket but the nut was tight on the threads. Not that unusual, we don’t get a lot of corrosion related problems in the desert generally but there’s going to be a lot of splash on a trailer hitch.