my alco hitch has seized on the ratchet wheel. i have tried the alco web site which says to sharply tap the centre to relaease the ratchet but i have tried this and it has not worked. does anybody have any ideas.
Not sure just what you mean by seized on ratchet wheel
A few weeks ago our Alko 1300 seized on the towball ie went on towball and the button went green to say ok but the ratchet wouldnt budge at all Luckily there was a dealer a mile down the road so asked the mechanic to look.he had never seen the problem before
He tried to release it but nothing worked until finally got a Stilson wrench and carefully used that to release,seems fine again now
The mechanic was unwilling to use the Stilson in case of damage but as nothing ekse had worked what choice did we have
If thats similar you could try but please be careful
thanks. sounds exactly the same. the alco web site have a document that says to tap the centre washer to relase the springs but it does not seem to work in my case. are all 1300s the same or is there a mark 1 and two or something different
as far as I am aware all 1300s are the same and yes they do seem to jamb from time to time this is caused by using the hitch incorrectly.
you must only turn the knob with the handle in the raised position or the wheel will jamb, the only way to release the wheel safely is to tap the centre metal part of the knob with a socket of the correct size (13mm) on a short extension untill it releases keep trying it will release eventually.
BTW. the reason it jambs is because the centre screw section inside the head is held in position by a star clip on the end of the thread this gets forced over the tread and jambs the wheel tapping it in the centre relocates the clip freeing it, you will also find using one of those dummy plastic balls (the red alko ones sold in suppliers) when the hitch is not in use also helps to aviod jamming of the wheel( if you set the hitch into operational mode with the red ball in place)
thanks colin but i have tried with the socket as described and have probably hit harder than would be expected to release the washer to no avail. i am awaiting a reply from alco as to any alternatives if not it looks like the stilsons or a new unit.
thanks to those who replied re the seized aks 1300 but gills solution was the only one that worked for me taking things gently it did free the ratchet wheel with the stilsons.
The only way I have found to stop this from happening is as follows:-
Connecting up, attach hitch then the green button pops out. Turn in the ratchet side until two or three clicks are heard. Then push down the red lever. Unconnecting: lift the red lever, wind back ratchet side gently until you feel the stop, now lift the hitch lock and uncouple.
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