Ice Castle Wheel Pivot Point Locked Up

[crappace]

I've had this 6.6x14 V nose for about 8 years. I've never greased the wheel/leaf spring pivot points and now one is locked up. It looks like there are zerk fittings but they are very rusted and now are just rusty nubs on the front of the pipe. I put penetrating oil on it but only had about 45 minutes to let it soak in before I tried lowering it again with no luck.

Suggestions?

Thanks,

Brent

[fishadb]

You are probably going to need to heat them with a torch to get them to move. Working with rust is never fun ideally you would want to take the shafts out and clean or replace them. Then replace the grease zerks. I usually grease and rotate mine 3 times a year, the sticker says every trip.

[Gordie]

Yep heat will most likely be needed to pull this apart, sometimes rusted parts are as strong as if they were welded to together and then I would clean up until rust and corrosion is gone and replace grease zerts and stick with a routine grease schedule.

A little preventive maintenance goes along way and you really would not want this to happen on the lake a long ways from home, but I bet you could find someone to come and repair on the ice for a expensive cost.

[efgh]

You now have a reason to buy a big hammer and a torch.

[minndonn]

I had the same problem and tried just heat and pounding. NO enough. For the zerks we welded a bolt over the old zerk hole and then put a zerk on the bolt. worked for greasing. Had to use a fork lift to break the rusted pivot loose. Good luck.