Thread: Any 4WD winch experts on here?

Appreciate the response mate. It’s not the gearbox after all. When you look at the design it’s actually impossible to get something misaligned or one tooth out.

It’s the brake inside the drum. For some reason it’s locking solid as soon as you wind the drum in with the lever engaged in the IN position. It’s locked so tight in the drum I had to knock it out with the club hammer and half axle method after soaking it in penetrating oil. So not something I had fucked up myself and now that I think about it I’ve been happily winching in and out with the lever in the out position… not that I’ve done particularly heavy work with it recently but I have been picking up quite a few deer and cattle and pulling down the old shed and doing a bit of general vehicle dragging. I think it’s a case of having a problem I didn’t know I had.

I can turn the drum attached to the gearbox by putting a drill on the driveshaft via an 8 mm socket. Works fine in both directions. So I have been able to eliminate the gearbox as a problem. But as soon as I drop the cleaned up brake unit into the drum and reassemble it just locks up again and the unit is not going to budge.

It’s really annoying because there is no stock of a replacement brake in New Zealand and it’s 4 to 5 months until the next lot arrive. Some might just buy a new winch, but its such a simple mechanism I reckon that’s all wrong considering it’s just one tiny part that doesn’t bloody work. So I have appealed to the Australian distributor to be kind and send me a brake. We’ll find out what he says in due course.

I will knock the brake out again and reinstall without the pads to triple check the logic