I fill a 5gal bucket with water and add a cup of washing soda (not baking soda) . Next I put in the rusty part and another piece of steel such as a length of rebar or heavier steel and ensure that the two aren’t touching. The final step is to connect the + positive lead from a 12v battery charger to the rebar and the negative lead to the part for de rusting . Leave it alone for 12 hours and the rust will be mostly gone or significantly loosened. This also loosened any paint.
I did it on a heavily rusted steering knuckle and it got down to the clean steel in 20 hours. Notice that I did not submerge the part far enough so that the liquid would reach the wheel bearing. Probably the sealed bearing would keep the water out but I didn’t want to risk it .
This is a link for a more detailed description of the process.
https://www.instructables.com/Electroly ... aka-Magic/