M1009 Pintle Strength and dropping a fuel tank

I have been reading for years on here about how weak the M1009 pintle hitch really is. I have put thousands of miles pulling supposedly too heavy for the truck M101 trailers with no issues and no bending of anything. Granted, I haven't tried pulling any 105's or yanking trees out of the ground either. I figured the guys on here talking about how weak they were just were abusing theirs or took the warnings in the manuals a bit too literal.

My fuel gauge has been reading about 1/4-1/2 tank when full and E when actually empty. Unless I hit a speed bump a bit too fast where it will read actual readings until I turn the key off. Then back to just half range again. I just drive 400 miles and put fuel in. Anyway, I finally got a new sender unit and went to install it today.

There are 12 bolts that have to be removed before the skid plate can be dropped according to the -20. 8 of those bolts directly hold the pintle hitch housing on. The attached picture shows the remains of all 8. All either broke off when I tried to loosen them or were so rust pitted they can not be used again.

Basically, I was fortunate my pintle didn't break loose from my frame/bumper. My driving style when pulling a trailer makes your grand mother driving to church on Sunday morning look like a speed demon. That is probably my only reason for not having broken anything yet. My advice is to put new bolts in place of the 8 age unknown ones in there if you are going to pull with the pintle.

Once I got the skid plate down, all 6 bolts came out with ease. I snapped off both strap threaded ends while pulling off the nut which holds down the rear wiring clamps. I didn't try the nuts actually holding the straps up because they looked rusted as well. I bolted the pintle back in with new fasteners and will wait for pay day before I buy new straps. Then I can take the pintle off again, drop the tank, put in the new sender and get everything back on again.

The -20 talks you through the fuel tank drop procedure very well. I spent about an hour getting to the point of being ready to drop it. Figure 3 hours start to finish if you are going to replace the sender. Also have a supply of 3/8" and 7/16" fasteners on hand so you can put good parts back in.

I think I'll go buy some bolts.....

Both my 1009 fuel gauges do exactly the same thing, I guess I should do my senders while I am putting new bolts on my pintle!

Cheers

Barrman,

Thanks for the info. One day I want to drop tank on mine to clean out my tank out.

I recently recovered a M101a2 had to tow with my Nissan Murano as the pintle hook on the M1009 was rusted shut. I also had Uhaul add a receiver hitch. Took them about an hour to get 4-6 rusted bolts out, and all where rusted and pitted. I hope that's 4-6 less rusted bolts I have to deal with when the time comes to drop mine.

I will need to check out the -20 TM.

stationjj

Barrman, I had the same problem with the straps on my Ford van. I broke them off and the dealer wanted 185 bucks!!!


Each!!!


No way.

I improvised with some all thread and a coupling, like this. Worked just fine, and I was back up and running for well under ten bucks.

Don't know if you have enough thread left for that, but it's worth considering.


Thanks for the info on the pintle bolts. That's pretty important information.

LMC and O'Reilly's both have the straps at $29 the set. I thought about doing the threaded rod thing since I had all the stuff apart. My reasons for not fabbing something up was I want that 224 pound when full tank secure. Yes, the skid plate is a great safety net and I am a great welder. However, the piece of mind for my wife who drives the truck a lot makes it worth the cost.

My truck is pretty much rust free all over. Yes, there is a bit of it on the inner rockers, but it is pretty solid. This rear bumper area is the worst I have found on it. I have no clue where it spent the last 28 years, but I think that area of the truck gets so much fine mist anytime a tire hits moisture. I will for sure be spraying paint on all the fasteners back there when this is done. Probably using thread lube on all of them too when I go back together.

Looks like they twisted off. Metric or SAE? Back in the 1980s, the market was awash in counterfeit fasteners. And the Fastener Quality Act did nothing but muddy the waters even more.

Keith,
I didn't even try metric on there. Didn't even think about it. 5/8 and 11/16 wrenches fit all of the fasteners I assumed where 7/16. 9/16 fit all of what I assume are 3/8 fasteners. Now you have me wondering. I will have to study the -P manuals to see if it list out what they are for real. I already threw away the ones in the picture without looking at the heads and don't feel like digging them out of the can right now. Maybe tomorrow.

Yes, the 3/8? bolts twisted apart when I tried to loosen them.

I finally got a chance to look in the -20P. Taking the number for the bolts I assumed were 7/16" and doing a search gets this:

http://www.ctg123.com/rapid-quote-system/request/?p=MS90728-92

Standard by the way I read it.

Part number MS90728-92

Another resource I tend to use: http://www.wbparts.com/nsndetail.cfm?NIIN=000712058&pn=MS90728-92

Grade 8 bolts to boot.

Barrman said:

I finally got a chance to look in the -20P. Taking the number for the bolts I assumed were 7/16" and doing a search gets this:

http://www.ctg123.com/rapid-quote-system/request/?p=MS90728-92

Standard by the way I read it.

Click to expand...

And grade 8 too. From the picture posted, one appears to be grade 5 and another is devoid of grade markings. You may be onto something.