when i bought my truck the previous owner had a cover on the hitch reciever so long that the pin was rusted to it and i had to cut it off to remove it. well when i went to put a hitch in, it wouldnt slide in, i had to take a sledge hammer to pound it in and then again to pound it out. when i got it out i wire brushed the reciever out and got it to were the hitch would slid in and out easily. i then brushed in marine grade grease to prevent the rust, but it didnt help i went to mut a hitch in today and had to pound it in again.does anyone have suggestions on how to fix this problem. if i cant figure it out come next summer ill have to replace the hitch and thats something i dont want to do unless completly nessecary.

 

There is surface rust inside the reciever tube and this is scaling up making the reciever tube too small to easily fit the ball mount.

Take a hammer and flat punch and hit the outside of the hitch and the rust scale will fall off. Patience it will take a little while. If you have a long chisel you can reach inside and do the same thing. Personally I use an air hammer on the outside with a hammer face bit and it breaks out the rust scale faily easily without a whole lot of work. After you are done and the ball mount installs and removes easily apply a nice coat of paint to the outside where you have hit with the hammer and inside where the rust scale was. After the paint dries you can lightly oil in the reciever tube to make installation easier.

 

Spray the inside with a can of PCL it is good on rust,after it sets awhile get a long wire brush and work on the inside,then spray again.I work at a Potash mine and we use it on bolts and nuts too get them off.PCL does a number on rust.The corners may have alot of rust build up in them. Well that's my 2 cents of information.

 

You can use Naval jelly to dissolve the iron oxide remaining once all the large flakes have been removed. Once you have it back to bare steel, paint it with several coats of enamel.