Hey guys this is my first post here. I'be been an active member on several other forums and have been browsing here for a while. I'm hoping somebody can help.

When I bought my LR3 the dealer didn't give me any keys to the lock for the hitch receiver. I was able to get the hitch and lock off and I purchased a replacement lock. Problem is, during taking the old lock off, I took TOO much apart and the internals of the hitch came out including all springs, pins and gears.

Has ANYBODY been able to take this thing apart and successfully put it back together? I cannot seem to get the parts to line up. Basically I can get it functioning but I cannot get the lock to work properly. When it's "locked" I can still pull it out and retract the locking pin. It looks like there's really only one way this thing can go together but I can't figure it out and I've been at it for days. Does anybody have any insight, tips, videos, pictures, or beer they can provide to help with this!?

Thanks for any and all help!

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I took mine apart because I had to hammer it off the truck. It was left on by the previous owner and was seized in there good n tight. All in all, I'm happy that it comes off and goes on easily now, but I made no effort to fix or replace the locking mechanism. With a locking ball mount pin, a locking coupler pin and the trailer landing leg stowed away in the rover, I am not concerned with anyone stealing my trailer. I remove the hitch when not in use, not to prevent theft, but to keep it from rusting up again. I had one instance when the hitch fell out with a trailer attached. I blame my own operator error for it, as I can only imagine the retaining pin was not fully engaged. It would have nothing to do with the locking mechanism.

good luck with it.

 

So how did you line up the internals? The way I have it the locking pin either sticks too far out or it doesn't lock all the way. I've got it to the point where it's functional but it's not the way it was originally.

 

let's call the retaining pin that slides in and out to hold the hitch to the truck a retaining pin.
and the locking mechanism that requires a key the lock.

What you are saying is that if the lock is working properly then the retaining pin cannot be retracted enough to engage the hitch with the truck. And on the other hand, when the retaining pin is working properly then the lock doesn't work.

As far as I can tell (remember my lock is not functional) the retaining pin and the geared shaft that retracts it when rotated act like a rack and pinion. Any tooth on the rack (pin) can engage with any tooth on the pinion (geared shaft). If you say that the pin sticks out too far; mark the pin with a felt marker, hold the pin so that the spring will not push it out when the geared shaft is removed, remove the shaft, push the pin in so the mark is not visible, put the shaft back in place. You might have to work the pin in and out a bit to get the teeth to engage.

From your pictures, I can see that the red part and the green part can only fit one way. The plate on the other side only allows the shaft to rotate a certain number of degrees.

As you can see in my picture, there are ten grooves on the pin that the teeth on the shaft engage with. If the shaft is currently engaged with groove #3 and you can change that so it engages with #4 or #5, then the resting position of the pin would be such that the extended length is shorter by the distance of one or two teeth.

This is all I can picture as making any difference. As I have said, my locking mechanism doesn't function as I have no key, but the retaining pin can be pulled back far enough to disengage and in the resting position is fully engaged to keep the hitch in place.

If the pin can't be pulled into the housing far enough, then it will not disengage from the vehicle without a little persuasion from a hammer and punch. If it is set too far inside the housing it may not be fully engaged with the bumper.

If a certain member of this forum gets ahold of this thread he will tell you the factory set up is unsafe and push the sale of his replacement product. Personally, I have enough faith in the factory set up and I appreciate the fact that I can remove the hitch (with the ball mount locked on) in about two seconds (with the unit requiring no key). Every other set up is bolted on, but also will not hang down as low and therefore will not need to be removed to improve clearance.

Each system has pros and cons, perhaps if you can't get it functioning properly you can look into replacement options.