Back in september last year I started operation winch repair after I broke the winch during an offroading event at the Land Cruiser Club. I cleaned and overhauled the which and electrical system but after reinstall the drum didn’t really turn. Brutus faced some other problems and went for repair for more than 3 months, winter arrived and the winch repair project went into hibernation. Yesterday was a somewhat cold but sunny day so I decided to solve the winch matters once and for all.
I uninstalled the winch for a second time and uninstalled the winch gearbox. Apparently the clutch wasn’t getting in the engaged position. Some fiddling around engaged the clutch and it’s easy to get the clutch into the free spool setting again however putting it back into the engaged setting still seems somewhat of a trail and error situation.
When the winch is installed the clutch handle is also in a very inaccessible location hidden in the internals of the winch bumper, so I just leave it there in the engaged position, although sources on the internet say you should leave the winch in the free spool position and put it only in the engaged position when winching.
After putting the winch back together and reinstalling it in the winch bumper I reinstalled the rope. One other problem I faced with the winch was that there was too much rope on it. When the rope was evenly distributed over the winch it barely fitted, but now I got quite a few meters left while the drum is full. Somehow all this rope fitted before I removed the winch. For now I wraped the remaining rope around the winch bumper.
So did I solve the winch matters once and for all? Not really. To really solve it I better replace the whole winch all together and install a shorter rope. And since I’m not expecting to use the winch very often that’s not what I’m going to do. For now I have to live with it.
