Hensley Rebuild and Repaint

[Air-Texas]

My Hensley Arrow was starting to look very rusty, so I decised to rebuild and repaint it. First the before pictures.

[Air-Texas]

Some during and after pictures. There was some dis-colored grease in the top two bearings, so I cleaned them and re-greased them before reinstalling. The hardest part of the entire job was getting the new grease seals installed. I had to replace two of the new seals that I ruined while installing them. I had to clean a little overspray off the hitch before the seals would tap back in.

[Air-Texas]

And back on the AirStream.

[Air-Texas]

I took it to a powder coating shop. The color is metallic orange. It was cheaper than the Hensley orange, which would have been a special order.

[SteveSueMac]

Wow! That looks great Air!! The ingenuity if this community both inspires me and makes me nervous (as a guy who hates to admit his lack of mechanical skills/abilities :-).

[Wingeezer]

Sure looks nice! I'd be interested in knowing what was involved with the mechanical aspect of the rebuilding. Are those domes over the large pivots difficult to remove and replace?

Presume you had to replace the bushings where the spring bars fit in?n

Brian.

[Sean Woodruff]

That looks really nice.

Minor installation point - move your jacks to the other side of the frame bracket pin. The jack should run down the front side of the pin. Bushing to the trailer side.


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[Wingeezer]

Originally Posted by Sean Woodruff

That looks really nice.

Minor installation point - move your jacks to the other side of the frame bracket pin. The jack should run down the front side of the pin. Bushing to the trailer side.


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Good tip Sean, Thanks - makes me wonder how I assembled mine & will have to check!

Brian

[Air-Texas]

Another note: I painted all but the threaded part on the links (figure 8 cams), and I ended up sanding the paint off the rods, which have to slide through the bearings. The entire shaft should be taped up.

[Air-Texas]

Another note: I had to replace the allen screws and collars that hold the jacks in place. They have a bad design; the allen screw faces up, and collects water, which rusts the screw in place. I installed the new collars and screws with a lot of grease to help prevent the rust. I could not put them in upside down, because there is a flat place on top where the screws tighten down on

[Sean Woodruff]

Originally Posted by Air-Texas

Another note: I had to replace the allen screws and collars that hold the jacks in place. They have a bad design; the allen screw faces up, and collects water, which rusts the screw in place. I installed the new collars and screws with a lot of grease to help prevent the rust. I could not put them in upside down, because there is a flat place on top where the screws tighten down on

Years ago it WAS designed to tighten the set screw on the bottom.

A lot of people were not tightening the set screw in the pin indent, the collar was coming off, and the the jack would slip off the pin.

At that time the indent was moved to the top of the pin where it could be seen during installation. The problem of the collar coming off went away.


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