Thread: Stuck Towball!

it tightens up clockwise.....and undoes anti=clockwise.....just like a normal nut and bolt ......spray it well with crc .....wait a minute .....apply a shifter to the right side of the nut on the right side of the towbar and pull towards you..... if you have a bit of heavy metal pipe that fits over the handle of the shifter ....it will give ya more leverage..

Ha Ha. I always stuff up with things like towballs because they are upside down! To fix that, I get underneath, look up at it the right way, and then work out which way I should be undoing things!!

Now I am confused
If I am standing over the towbar with the nut underneath I turn it clockwise

I found that:
big spanner + sledgehammer = success!!

Originally Posted by felixe

Now I am confused
If I am standing over the towbar with the nut underneath I turn it clockwise

Yep.

Looks clockwise from above the ball, or anticlockwise from below.

Can hold the base of the towball with some stillsons if it turns when you turn the nut.

As mentioned, may take a bit of a shock as applied by a weighty persuader to "break" it loose.

Put the spanner on with the handle to the drivers side of the car.

Place a piece of pipe over handle to increase leverage.

Sit on the ground , put your feet on the bumperbar and pull as hard as you can.

f you use a socket or ring spanner you can hit it with a hammer - not good for tools but sometimes necasary.

Thank you for the assistance, however please see my post above.......
Problem was solved with a sledgehammer and a spanner!

I once spent a long time trying to remove the wheel nuts off my dads coaster bus. What ever I did, nothing seemed to work. Then I was told that the right hand side wheels had a left hand thread.

Originally Posted by felixe

I am trying to get the towball off so I can fit a bike rack.
First let me check my assumptions - it does unscrew clockwise, ok
It seems to be on tight, any suggestions on how to loosen it?

Felixe.

We must be soul brothers. removed my tow ball on Thursday- actually I didn't. Went to a metalworking friend who first tried with 60cm stilsons- didnt move it. Finished up wth 1.5metre stilsons on the ball with a socket and a 2metre bar(pipe) on the nut and it moved.
I thought the car was going to break in two with the pressure it was under.

Carry Pine

I used to work in a bike shop many moons ago and sold bike carriers that go on tow bars from time to time.

Standard issue for this job were some large stilsons to hold the ball (if needed), a large shiftable spanner, and a metre of pipe to go over the spanner handle - moved every time!

left to loosen , right to tighten

The two biggest problems with undoing towballs is either rust on the thread of the nut if it's been on there a while, usually turning the towball while you're trying to undo the nut, or the spring washer actually doing its job of preventing the nut from coming loose. The washer can literally peel off a strand of metal from the nut as you undo that first turn.

Glad to see you got it sorted!