winch maintenance?

[Limited Ex]

I've got a Warn on my vehicle, and decided to pull it off the bumper the other day to inspect as to why Free Spool won't engage anymore. Why I chose to do this now I don't know. It has been that way for at least 2 years Anyhow, while I have it off the vehicle, are there any other things that I might should do to it while I have it apart? Money allowing, I may get a synthetic line as the cable has a couple spots that concern me to a small degree, and maybe a new hook. Heck, a new fairlead would really not be bad, the rollers don't spin too well! Maybe that should come apart too.....

 

[Limited Ex]

Popped the old girl open today, and now I know why it would not engage free spool:

So does anyone have any suggestions as to how to handle this? I went and bought some parts cleaner to soak everything in, if I could figure out how to disassemble it. Despite how it looks, the winch does work. I am going to check Warns website and see if they have anything to offer.

 

[Brian1]

Wow, that looks pretty nasty. Has the winch ever been submerged?

Give Warn a call, they are known for good customer service.

 

[Limited Ex]

I may try that in the morning, maybe they are open on Saturdays.....
Not sure if it has ever been submerged. I know I have not ever come anywhere near dunking it, but I bought it used a few years ago so who knows what it went through before I got it

Anyone know of any disassembly instructions for these things??? Its not as easy as I as thinking it would be..

 

[Hotweels]

everything u need to know....
http://jonfund.com/technical/winchteardown.shtml

 

[Limited Ex]

MAN you rock! Thanks!
Maybe now I can get the rest of it apart, still looks like I will have to order parts though. I was kind of hoping this would only be a day job, oh well.

 

[Hotweels]

dont worry.... if you have a decent 4x4 shop or WARN dealer near by chances are they stock and sell a small rebuild kit..... there normally just a handfull of small bushing's and seal's and are pretty cheap.

when i rebuild stuff that look's like that i let it soak in wd-40 fer a while and scrub off what ever i can on the surface with a tooth brush..... if you dont have a parts washer to clean it in then just go out and grab one of them $5 oil drain pan's from wally world they work awsome for cleaning parts in and you cant lose anything that decides to fall off.

is also nice to have emry cloth and a small wire brush.....

dont feel bad about it tho.... i have done several winch cleanup's and that one does not look all that bad..... i have seen a couple 8274's with 1" of mud in the bottom case and 1 xd9000 that was left for allmost a year full of water an muskeg..... it had to be soaked for a week in diesel to get it appart.

if the geartrain side look's like that i wonder what the motor side look's like? you may wanna pull it out and if it still look's good smear some dialetric grease on the terminal's just make sure you use new gaskets and a thin smear of silicone when it all goes back in.

 

[Limited Ex]

Again, thanks for that link! I got the entire winch apart this afternoon
The gears I let soak in some parts cleaner for awhile, paint can full of the stuff from Advance for $10, scrubbed them the best I could with a wire brush then hosed them off with some brake cleaner. Then I ran out of brake cleaner, so tomorrow I am going to have to get some more. I am considering replacing the largest set of gears in the carrier assembly, they are rusted pretty good in some spots. This of course depends on the price. The other problem I see right now is the sliding ring gear seems rusted into the housing. Now that I think about it, I am going to get some PB Blaster tomorrow too, that should take care of the rust. Hopefully anyhow.
One thing I had considered was looking into the gear sets for the 9000i winch. I have the 8000i, and wonder what is the major difference between the two? Gears and motor?
Speaking of the motor, I did pull that off and it looks okay. I did not take it out of its housing, which I may do tomorrow, but at first glance it looks decent. I'll snap a picture of it and get an experts opinion on it

 

[Limited Ex]

Oh and what type of grease do you use when lubing the gears? I saw on that page what he suggested, but I was not sure if there was anything else that might be easier to come by?

 

[Limited Ex]

Today I finally managed to get the ring gear out of the end housing. Now I know why the lever would not turn to go to free spool

I scrubbed it the best I could with some brake parts cleaner and some PB Blaster, and this is as good as I could get it. However, if you can see, the rust has already pitted the gear pretty decently....

And there is not much to say for the end housing. This is after a good scrubbing and dousing with chemicals...

I can run my finger along the inside and feel the pits in the housing as well. And a relatively small groove that has been eroded into the metal. After seeing this, I am not sure that I want to take the chance of cleaning it and reassembling it. If I were to replace it, the end housing comes as one whole unit with the housing itself, the ring gear and the clutch lever and runs $93.70. That would be coming out of South Carolina, so I don't think shipping would be bad. What do you guys think, would you invest $93 in this?

 

[Hotweels]

i just use a product like Lidok EP moly and all that just an extream pressure good quality general purpose grease.

i personally would just buff out a bit of the rust with some emery cloth and lube it up nice..... but thats just the cheap bastid in me....

if your concerned with the structural integrity of the case (i cant tell how deep the gouge is you are talking about) then by all means replace it.... if its mostly cosmetic then slap er back in with fresh grease and wait for the next tear down to replace it.... you could always try e-bay for parts too.... i have seen winches that where in accidents being parted out on e-bay before....

 

[Limited Ex]

I went and bought a couple wire wheels for my Dremel and was able to get the housing polished up quite nicely. The ring gear however, was not so lucky. There is a decent amount of corrosion on it that could not be removed. Tomorrow I may try a stone bit and see if I can clean it up more. I did try sliding the gear back in the housing, and it is not too smooth. When I put it all back together, I want to be SURE that my free spool with be able to engage without worry.