We haven’t used the winch very much, which is a good thing. But it is obviously part of our emergency recovery equipment. When choosing the winch, we decided on Warn as they appeared to have a good reputation and were a large well established company. However, after our WARN winch failure, I’m now not so sure that they are quite as good as expected.
Recently I noticed the winch cable hanging lower than normal from the winch. I gave the cable a pull and it unrolled from the winch when it should have been locked in place. I checked the ‘engage/dis-engage’ leaver and it made no difference, the winch drum was free to rotate! The winch was clearly broken. It’s only two years old and has been used just four times for relatively light use. The winch wasn’t in use at the time of the failure, it was just sat on the front of the truck.
I stripped down the winch gear box and found that the output shaft of the second planet gear set had just fallen off! It seems that, by design, this gear is held in place by its teeth having been smashed-over to form a small burr, which is supposed to stop the gear from coming out of the planet gear plate. I find it hard to put into words my disappointment at what a c**p design this is. Remember, this main gear component simply fell apart while driving down a track! It was not even in use or under load!!! I can only wonder why this gear is not held in position by welding, or with a circlip (on both sides), or with a machined end to retain it.
The gear seen here in the middle had fallen out of this position!
I was able to push the gear back into position and, using a small punch, burr over the gear teeth once again to return to the factory standard of poor quality! However, I did not want this gear to fall apart again.
1st and 2nd planet gear sets. The 2nd set fell off to the left into the space between the two gear sets!
I therefore raided Julie’s kitchen and found a strong nylon kitchen chopping board which I cut into a large washer.
Nylon washer made from chopping board.
I fitted this washer between the planet gear sets to try to prevent the gear from falling apart again.
Nylon washer installed
So far, this appears to have worked and we have a working winch once again. When I can find somewhere with a welder, I may have the gear fixed permanently into position.
Click here for other modifications and repairs that we have done to the Truck
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