Roll Pin in Dead End Hole

I just bought a nice fast hitch for my 350 diesel. Been looking for one for several years. I am disassembling it for repair and painting. The arm that the cylinder attaches to has a pin held in with a roll pin in a dead end hole. Is there any trick to getting that roll pin out other than drilling it out?

If the tip is sticking out, I have a home-made tool that could work.

Its a vise grip welded to a slide hammer setup. If the vise grip can "grip" the end of the pin there's a chance it will come out.

The only other good idea is to drill from the other side, but that's also fraught with peril unless you can remove the part and set it up in a machine such as a drill press or mill. Its not that it won't help but could easily be misaligned so a punch would have to bend to drive the whole thing out.

I don't recommend trying to drill the actual roll pin itself, its a spring steel and will destroy many drill bits. Don't fall into the trap of thinking a solid carbide drill bit in a handheld drill will be better. The carbide while hard is very brittle and will shatter due to the chatter induced in a handheld drill. The effects can range from a $30 tool destroyed to the same plus a piece of uber hard material jammed down into a hole.

If the part can be removed and can handle the heat without damage, its possible to heat the part cherry red with oxyacet and attack the pin in stages while its in the heated state. The drill bit will be able to remove bits of material which is in a lower strength state. But, it will take many iterations and many bits, but this is the best chance for preserving the original hole.

Sadly, when its out, you can finally drill all the way thru which would have taken the OEM just a couple more seconds....

The roll pin of course is hollow. I wonder if you could use a small bit that will go inside the roll pin and drill a small hole through to the other side. That would give you a starting point to drill from the back side so you could drive the pin out.

Is this the pin through top eye end of cylinder rod and through the eye pin? Don't remember that being a dead end hole if so.

I think you are correct. There is a dimple on the back side where paint filled it. If not, a lond drill bit just big enough to go through the roll pin and out the other side. This would locate the redrilling from that side. Jim

Turns out those IH engineers were smarter than my first impression. They used the exact right length roll pin so you could drive it in and the whole roll pin fit in the shaft. So I just drove the roll pin in and pulled the shaft out. Then just drove the roll pin out of the shaft on the bench.

That ?s thinking out of the box . Driving a roll pin IN to take the shaft from the hub.