Hensley Arrow Hitch Rebuild (long - lots of pics)
I picked up a used Hensley Arrow Hitch this spring and I thought I would share the refurbishment of it. I've had my eye on these for years, but could never justify the high price tag they demand. By all accounts they work as advertised and was excited to find out for myself.
I wasn't really actively looking for one, but the thought crossed my mind, so I did a Craigslist search, saw one was for sale nearby and it had been for sale for quite a while. After contacting the seller to get some details, then I made an offer for what I was will to pay ($800) and he accepted it!
I called Hensley to get details based on the serial number (and to make sure it wasn't reported stolen or something weird), It was all good and this one was originally sold in 2004. It doesn't appear to have had a ton of use, but I'm sure it has been outside for most all it's life. The powder coat on these things apparently is notoriously bad this one was no exception. But I wouldn't expect it to be shiny after 10 years either. Anyway, I like to really go through things like this so I know exactly what the true condition is, replace anything if needed and really get a good understanding of how things work. I don't like to wonder and worry about the maintenance history. So here are a few of pictures of the tear down so far.
Here are the first few pictures of the tear down. There are 8 cone bearings & races just like your wheel bearings. There are 4 shafts with 2 bearings on each shaft. Now these things aren't spinning like wheel bearings are, just back and forth a few degrees, but I was concerned about water intrusion after 10 years and my concern turned out to be justified.
These pics are of the lower unit (black part) that attaches to the truck via hitch bar. You can see one of the bearings grease is pink, instead of dark red. The pink one has seen water. The upper seal had failed. The bearings on that side were actually starting to rust a bit. The upper bearing would not slide off due to a tiny amount of rust on the shaft and a close tolerance. I started to really worry this might be a bit of a nightmare to get off, but a gentle pull with my puller and it easily came free. Of course I ruined the bearing doing this, but it was already slightly pitted and was going to be replaced anyway. The others all look fine and will just get repacked and new seals. Next is cleaning up all that grease and grime, then it will soak overnight in Evaporust, then remove any remaining loose paint, prime, paint, repack, reassemble, install, then I think we will go camping.
When I removed the other 2 sets of bearing from the upper section of the hitch they both had water damage and rust in them. You wouldn't have know they were bad by just rotating the hitch around and maybe I could have got away with just cleaning them all up, but since I'm going through all this work, I went ahead and replaced all 8 bearings and races. I doubt they would have ever actually failed, because there is such little motion, but much longer without use, things were probably going to seize up. I ordered new bearing caps (those silver half domes) from Hensley and I think they are the weak link for water intrusion. I will probably use a little RTV Silicone on the mating surfaces when I reinstall them to ensure no more water infiltration....
After complete disassembly, I soaked some of the unpainted rusty parts in Evaporust (a wonderful non toxic de-rusting solution) and the greasy rusty parts in my electrolysis tank to remove the rust grime and hopefully the powder coat. You can see how the water - baking soda solution starts clear, and after applying power with a battery charger (after 24 hours) the rust transfers from the part to the cast pipes. You can see tiny bubbles immediately after you apply power. I used 12v and 10 amps. It's a super simple setup and it works wonderfully. Science is so cool! I know electrolysis will strip off many layers of paint, but never tried to remove powder coat with it. I'll save you the suspense, it does not. Booo. The powder coat was in terrible shape, I could get under it with a knife and flake up big pieces all over the place. Even in places that it was hard to get off, I still found rust under it. I'm beginning to despise powder coat...too many failures and too hard to fix them.
Painting over the remaining powder coat would have been a bad idea. It just was not well adhered anymore. So off to the sand blaster the parts went. As I understand it, sometimes even sand blasting can't effectively remove powder coat and it needs to be baked off. This time it came off fine.
I got all 8 races pressed back in, and everything now ready for paint. I'll be painting using, low gloss black, Valspar Tractor and Implement Primer and Paint with a hardener additive. Sounds like the tractor restoration guys really like it for an affordable durable paint for metal. If it's good enough for the tractor resto guys, it's good enough for my hitch!
Well I've determined I need a 2" drop instead of the 4" it came with, so I have to order one of those pricey little devils, unfortunately. That's all - glad I did it once, and hope I never have to do it again!
I wasn't really actively looking for one, but the thought crossed my mind, so I did a Craigslist search, saw one was for sale nearby and it had been for sale for quite a while. After contacting the seller to get some details, then I made an offer for what I was will to pay ($800) and he accepted it!
I called Hensley to get details based on the serial number (and to make sure it wasn't reported stolen or something weird), It was all good and this one was originally sold in 2004. It doesn't appear to have had a ton of use, but I'm sure it has been outside for most all it's life. The powder coat on these things apparently is notoriously bad this one was no exception. But I wouldn't expect it to be shiny after 10 years either. Anyway, I like to really go through things like this so I know exactly what the true condition is, replace anything if needed and really get a good understanding of how things work. I don't like to wonder and worry about the maintenance history. So here are a few of pictures of the tear down so far.
Here are the first few pictures of the tear down. There are 8 cone bearings & races just like your wheel bearings. There are 4 shafts with 2 bearings on each shaft. Now these things aren't spinning like wheel bearings are, just back and forth a few degrees, but I was concerned about water intrusion after 10 years and my concern turned out to be justified.
These pics are of the lower unit (black part) that attaches to the truck via hitch bar. You can see one of the bearings grease is pink, instead of dark red. The pink one has seen water. The upper seal had failed. The bearings on that side were actually starting to rust a bit. The upper bearing would not slide off due to a tiny amount of rust on the shaft and a close tolerance. I started to really worry this might be a bit of a nightmare to get off, but a gentle pull with my puller and it easily came free. Of course I ruined the bearing doing this, but it was already slightly pitted and was going to be replaced anyway. The others all look fine and will just get repacked and new seals. Next is cleaning up all that grease and grime, then it will soak overnight in Evaporust, then remove any remaining loose paint, prime, paint, repack, reassemble, install, then I think we will go camping.
When I removed the other 2 sets of bearing from the upper section of the hitch they both had water damage and rust in them. You wouldn't have know they were bad by just rotating the hitch around and maybe I could have got away with just cleaning them all up, but since I'm going through all this work, I went ahead and replaced all 8 bearings and races. I doubt they would have ever actually failed, because there is such little motion, but much longer without use, things were probably going to seize up. I ordered new bearing caps (those silver half domes) from Hensley and I think they are the weak link for water intrusion. I will probably use a little RTV Silicone on the mating surfaces when I reinstall them to ensure no more water infiltration....
After complete disassembly, I soaked some of the unpainted rusty parts in Evaporust (a wonderful non toxic de-rusting solution) and the greasy rusty parts in my electrolysis tank to remove the rust grime and hopefully the powder coat. You can see how the water - baking soda solution starts clear, and after applying power with a battery charger (after 24 hours) the rust transfers from the part to the cast pipes. You can see tiny bubbles immediately after you apply power. I used 12v and 10 amps. It's a super simple setup and it works wonderfully. Science is so cool! I know electrolysis will strip off many layers of paint, but never tried to remove powder coat with it. I'll save you the suspense, it does not. Booo. The powder coat was in terrible shape, I could get under it with a knife and flake up big pieces all over the place. Even in places that it was hard to get off, I still found rust under it. I'm beginning to despise powder coat...too many failures and too hard to fix them.
Painting over the remaining powder coat would have been a bad idea. It just was not well adhered anymore. So off to the sand blaster the parts went. As I understand it, sometimes even sand blasting can't effectively remove powder coat and it needs to be baked off. This time it came off fine.
I got all 8 races pressed back in, and everything now ready for paint. I'll be painting using, low gloss black, Valspar Tractor and Implement Primer and Paint with a hardener additive. Sounds like the tractor restoration guys really like it for an affordable durable paint for metal. If it's good enough for the tractor resto guys, it's good enough for my hitch!
Well I've determined I need a 2" drop instead of the 4" it came with, so I have to order one of those pricey little devils, unfortunately. That's all - glad I did it once, and hope I never have to do it again!
