Freeing up a badly stuck telescoping draft link

I looked for ways to do this but didn't find much. So I decided to post what I came up with. I used a weed burner and some old paving bricks to make an oven. An old heavily worn draw bar from an 830 made a
good lever. The lever was mounted on the short railroad tie retaining wall near my shop. Then when the arm was hot enough I got it pinned to the lever on one end. I quickly secured the other end to the
railroad tie. The draft link then came apart with just mild force on the lever. I did try the lever before heating, but that would not do it. The only casualty is the spring on the pin that locks the
telescoping arm in place. Three point hitches live a tough life.
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Some guys can build things.

Some guys can fix things.

Some can not do either and will not even try.

I do not think you are part of the latter group. Nice job of using what you have on hand to solve a problem.
 
That is a very creative idea to heat one up. Looks like it really got it HOT. I have heated them before with a torch and hooked one end to a tree and the other to a tractor to pull them apart.
I never had to get mine that hot , but I still wonder if it hurt the metal heating them up ?
I have no metallurgy knowledge and don't know if regular open air cooling is fine or if it should be packed in sand and slow cooled ? or quenched in oil or water ?
 
Thanks for your kind words. When I was thinking about how to do this, a quote from Arthur Ashe came to mind: "Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can." It is a favorite quote of mine, although I think Winston Churchill said something like it first.
 
Yes I think you are right about potential for changing the metal hardness. It cooled slowly enough that if anything maybe some annealing effect? Assembled, the square cross section is over 2 inches of solid steel which I think represents plenty of strength. These three point hitch parts were used on three different size tractors as we all know. So I may put this one on my 530LP where the potential implements requiring 3 point hook up are not has heavy. Worst case scenario, I can just buy a new parts. But for now I like having minimal cost of only a few pounds of propane.
 
Wasn't that the tennis player ? I'd like to see him beat one of these loose with his racket. LOL.
 

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