On Sat, 04 Feb 2012 14:43:39 -0500, jeff_wisnia
wrote:

Winston wrote:

Bought a brand-new hitch ball to replace the dented
and cruddy old junky looking thing.

Whilst tightening it with medium force (using a short
1/2" ratchet without a cheater) I managed to strip
the nut threads (I think). The thing is now stuck in
the bumper and the nut just rotates backwards without
unthreading if I attempt to back it off.

Right now, I'm thinking that I will carve a slot
up the male thread and cleave the nut in two using
an angle grinder and cutting disk.

Better idears, please.

--Winston

Just a thought....If there's enough room there and you could borrow a
large enough nut splitter the job would almost do itself:

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/too...ct_34573_34573

I've had a couple of sizes of nut splitters in my "hell box" for 30+
years and every so often one comes in handy.

Jeff

Yeah, I use one, too. It was a regular maintenance tool on my '78 Ford
Fiesta, which had special anti-nut-loosening features that involved
rusting the nuts in place if you looked at them cross-eyed. It was
like ultraviolet-cure adhesive, but you could do it with your naked
eyes; faster if you have X-ray vision.

Anyway, I had to sharpen mine from time to time (even to finishing
with a hard Arkansas stone) because I used it to crack some pretty
hard nuts with it. In Winnie's case, I wondered about finding one
large enough and also about how hard that nut may be.

It sounds like it's junk, so maybe a nut splitter is the trick.

--
Ed Huntress