Zorba's Jeep
Winch Refurb
Starting winch disassembly...
Motor endcap removed.
Brush assembly removed. Brushes look great.
Armature removed.
Small amount of surface rust on shaft, commutator re-burnished.
Bad corrosion under the now scraped off powder coat.
Ditto for the other end, note small chip on edge.
Chipping, scraping, wire brushing, and spraying!
Main motor housing needs a quick paint refresh.
Flat blacked.
Re-installing armature and brush assembly.
Silicon sealant on both ends, note paint on armature shaft.
Motor reassembled.This winch has been into sometime in the past. The last guy who was into it put some silicon sealant where the ends attach to the main motor housing. This made it slightly harder to disassemble, but makes sense as this winch is NOT considered waterproof, so it needs all the help it can get in that department. The brushes were in good shape, so I lightly burnished the commutator and called that part good. The main problem here was that the aluminum end caps were badly corroded - powder coating doesn't always work well with aluminum. In any event, after considerable chipping and wire brushing, I put a fresh coat of paint on the end caps - as well as refreshing the paint on the steel main motor housing. I could tell that the winch had been repainted in the past, a slight imperfection in the previous masking off the motor's data tag gave that clue.
They guy I bought the winch from "tried". He put "Liquid Electrical Tape" on the motor wiring connection bolts. That's fine, until you want to take them off - it was a bit of a pain to get the nuts off, but I did, and the correct boots were ordered... As will be seen below, I pretty much had to redo and undo just about everything he did to the winch, unfortunately.
Next was the drum. The previous owner had spooled a "used but good" wire rope onto the winch, with a brand new hook on its end. I removed the rope to inspect both it and the drum. The rope had a hockle about 18 or 20 feet from the lead end. Uh, no - that's not "used but good", that's a "disaster in the making" and a safety hazard. I've been around ropes and lines enough to know better. So it becomes a choice of either re-terminating the wire rope at approx. a 65 ft length, or tossing it and getting the synthetic line I really want anyway. I thought about it for about 10 to 15 milliseconds, then I removed the brand new hook from the end, and placed the entire 85 feet of wire rope in the recycle bin! So that's something else the previous owner did that I had to discard...
Un-wound the wire rope to reveal a hockle about 18 feet from its end.
Drum needs cleanup, note new hook removed from wire rope.
I like to obsess over weird things like this - what in tarnation caused the wear on the driveshaft? Its not supposed touch anything where it was showing the wear. Here's what I think happened, other explanations may be possible: The old Sun Gear didn't allow for the shaft to seat deep enough, and caused it to bow. Combined with the fairly sharp chamfer of the axial hole in the "splined drive", it hit same and wore as the shaft spins vastly faster than the splined drive. It may have been a case of an old spec Sun gear and a newer spec driveshaft - the Sun gear has definitely been revised as can be seen from the above pictures, so we can call it "old". Perhaps the shaft was the wrong version for that revision of the Sun gear and was thus a bit too long. *shrug*. In any event, I bet it doesn't do that now, and in addition, I'm going to invert the splined drive from its former orientation as I think it was backwards. After careful analisys of how the final stage planetary goes together, I think someone assembled it wrong - will check on the Jeep forum...
Brake assembly (far right) tapped out of drum.
More phosphoric acid used...
About 4 treatements...
Results in a 95% rust free drum, ready for paint!
Next day, a final wire brushing, and the ends masked off where the plastic bushings ride.
"Red Lead" primered, then flat blacked (not shown).
Partially disassembled brake assembly. Cleaned up, and primered the one
end as seen here as it was a bit rusty. Brake shoes are in good order.
Will need to buff overspray from the forcing cone faces before reassembly.
Cleaned up, inspected, threw some paint on the above mentioned end,
now reassembled and ready to re-install.
Winch drive shaft, runs from the brake assy to the gearbox. Was a bit rusty,
so that got cleaned off. Inset detail shows wear where the shaft enters the
gearbox. I'll just swap it end for end, and put some paint on it for protection.
Yet another instance of the previous owner of this winch trying, but failing:
This hook, although brand new, isn't intended nor rated for winching a Jeep.
I'll keep it for other uses, its meant to be used with chain for cargo tie-down!
Starting on gearbox work. This is what happens when you put an unprotected steel fastener
into aluminum and then get it wet. Never-seize or grease would have prevented this.
"Splined Drive" gear and planetary removed. Filthy, and has been wet!
Above, and quite a bit more cleaned this far. Note rust. Will paint to protect in the future.
This tiny "Sun gear" is what drives the entire gearbox from the driveshaft. "Something"
has happened to the end of it. It must have been this way for years as I didn't find any
of the missing fragments. Fortunately, no damage to the bushing it rides in. New one was purchased.
Clutch handle seal is thrashed.
Clutch handle with seal and its backing washer removed, rust cleaned, and primed
Gearbox end cap and ring have been cleaned up, and primered.
Finish coat. Screws had a small amount of rust on them too.
A brief intude: The mystery of the drive shaft wear
Reprised from above: Mysterious wear on the drive shaft. The "Sun Gear"
fits on the RH end, and the wear is coincident with where the shaft enters
the gearbox though the "Splined Drive" which has a round opening MUCH
larger than the shaft - hence, "why the wear?".
Old Sun gear on right, compared to new one.
Height comparison.
(Repainted) driveshaft fully seated in old part. It couldn't go all the way in.
New part seated approximately the same distance onto driveshaft.
And this one can go further in.
This is the splined drive which is where the driveshaft was showing wear.
Note witness marks from the 3rd stage (output) planetary.
Other end, not as well chamfered, but this end was facing outward. See text...After some discussion on the Jeep forum, an alternate explanation arises. Perhaps detritus from the broken end of the Sun gear caused same to ride up in the bushing, causing the same effect. The wear pattern on the old Sun gear suggests that it may not have been fully seated. The scoring in the bottom of its bushing was virtually certainly caused by the jagged edge (of the Sun gear), but is inconclusive as to whether or not the broken off debris caused a ride up condition. I didn't find the debris, it was either flushed away with parts cleaner early on - or this situation happened sometime before the last time someone was into this winch, so it had already been cleaned out previously by "the last guy". Who knows? This theory is at least as probable as my version - perhaps more so!
Endcap showing bushing where the Sun gear rides. Note scoring in the end (inset detail).
Winch re-assembled.
Saw these "4.0L High Output" decals for cheap, had to add them!
A couple of updated glamour shots!
Lookin' much better than it did when I first brought it home...Read on for the next part!
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