Detachable Towbar help!

So I’ve inherited one with the car as show below, but the lock isn’t working so I can push in the knob/catch to get it into the “insertable” position after which it’d be locked into the car. I’ve tried fettling and GT85 🙂

Anyone know how to fix it, or where I could just buy the spare swan neck piece alone?

you 100% sure it’s the lock?

on my one you can only ‘lock it’ when the catch has rotated to the green position and the bar is safe to use.

I’d ring a towbar fitter, they’re quite simple to find.

“Google… Towbar fitter Area: wherever you live”

I did it myself… I found a towbar bloke in seconds

No point paying someone to tel me its broken if STW could do it for me for free Weeksy 🙂

wwaswas – I can’t push it in and turn it to the gree position, thats the issue. The key turns 180 degrees, the knob turns as far as it can and the “rod” at the end starts to poke out but not fully and neither does the little ball rise, but no amount of kryton-weight will allow the knob to be pushed in.

Kryton57 – Member

No point paying someone to tel me its broken if STW could do it for me for free Weeksy

wwaswas – I can’t push it in and turn it to the gree position, thats the issue. The key turns 180 degrees, the knob turns as far as it can and the “rod” at the end starts to poke out but not fully and neither does the little ball rise, but no amount of kryton-weight will allow the knob to be pushed in

But it’s mostly guesswork from random assumptions based upon what you’re saying. Take it into a towbar place and say “can you have a quick look at this please…” will take them 30s to tell you it’s OK or broken and give you a quite to repair/replace.

Normally the knob on the towball would stay latched open and you just shove it in, however I had a bit of trouble with ours after my wife removed it, she managed to push the knob in and turn it part way and remove the towball before the knob latched in the open position, against the spring.

This meant some faffing was required, I think I had to hold in one of sprung parts on the mechanism (making it think its still attached to the car) before I could push the knob in and turn it to the point where it latches and you can let go of the knob without it springing back.

Once the knob is latched open you then just shove it in and it’ll clunk in reassuringly.

(edit – slightly confused, I don’t think you would ever turn the knob to the green position, you would turn it into the red position to remove, and when the ball is correctly inserted it will spring back to the green, at which point you can lock the knob with the key.)

The hitch has already partly engaged without being fully home. You will have to fiddle, as per above post to ‘reset’ it. A tow hitch fitting place will sort it in a few seconds.