Dous
New member
Anyone who has an XRC winch by Smittybuilt will tell you they are of decent quality, minus a few things
-Hard to free spool
-Solenoids suck
-Slow line speed
What this write up will fix is the first two things, unfortunately the third is something you will have to live with
Part 1
The first thing we will address is the free spooling issue, which is a result of the grease. As we know these are made in China, and they chose the cheapest grease, read glue, I have ever seen. This stuff was insanely tacky, but I am assuming the winch will be fine with less tacky grease, I did a pull with mine and it seemed fine after the re-greasing.
To start off:
Gather your supplies:
- At least 2 rolls of good paper towels
-Mineral Spirits
-Good quality grease, only need one tub
-Old toothbrush
-Bucket
-Brake Cleaner
Dismount your winch from the mounting surface and bring it to a bench to work on it, this is will be a very messy process and is not possible with the winch still on the car
Next loosen all of the allen bolts holding on the gear cover, these are small so be careful not to lose them
Here is what you should have now, all the bolts, and the PAPER gasket between the gear cover and mating surface. If you are careful you can reuse this gasket, otherwise you will just use RTV to seal it.
Now this is what you should see inside the winch
Grab ahold of the gear assembly and wiggle is out, not very hard to do. The grease holds most of it together. It should all pull out as one unit, minus the thrid planetary gear set. You can then reach in and pull the remaining gear set out.
Uh...yea
Forgive me here, because the picture taking slowed down, it gets REALLY messy.
Here are the gears separated and cleaned.
The best way I found to remove this grease is with mineral spirits.
-Pour mineral spirits in a small bucket
-Put gear in bucket
-Scrub with old tooth brush.
It is a good method and gets them pretty darn clean. I didn't bother with completely disassembling each individual planetary gear set, but if you are really worried about getting all of that crappy grease out that is the best way to do it.
Also very important. When you are cleaning it you will have noticed these two plastic washers. These go between the second and third set of planetary gears, they will remain in place until you start cleaning. The grease holds them on pretty good
To clean the inside of the winch, I used brake cleaner. It dissolves the grease and with the help of a brush and some paper towels you can get the majority of it removed.
NOW....repack the gears with grease, very easy to do and then reassemble. The photos of the clean gear set show which way they go in, but if for some reason you get confused this is really good reference.
XRC8 Free-spool Fix - JeepForum.com
Once the gears are greased and back in place put the cover back on with the paper gasket, or RTV. Also make sure to put some grease on the clutch lever, you can see where is should go when you look at the cover, it makes it quite a bit easier to engage and disengage.
Part 2
Next we will be fixing the solenoid. The problem is that the crappy rubber gasket in the solenoid lets water get in, which is not a good thing. Replacing this gasket with RTV will solve any water getting in.
What you will need:
RTV or some type of sealant
Dielectric Grease
Here is the solenoid with the plastic cover removed.
Remove the four allen bolts holding it together.
[imghttp://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee259/Dous07/IMG_0706.jpg[/img]
Separate the two halves, you will see these 4 springs, they are hold in place, but can fall out pretty easily so keep an eye on them
Here you can see the seal, it is not very good, also you can review the benefits of nitrile over latex.
Apply your RTV in the groove of the surface and mate them together. Easy.
Here you can see where I put some RTV on the outside of the solenoid where the wire enters. I am assuming this is where water is getting in normally, I wanted as much water resistance as possible
Next I put dielectric grease over all the connections to prevent future corrosion.
Put it all back together and you are done!
You CAN polish a t.urd
All buttoned up
In review
After testing the winch free spools SO much easier, it used to take two people to free spool the thing. Now I can literally grab the thimble with my pinky and free spool it. It is also quieter during operation, but in nature this is a noisy winch. Also by waterproofing the solenoid I won't have to worry about it failing on me, like it has to so many other people.
-Hard to free spool
-Solenoids suck
-Slow line speed
What this write up will fix is the first two things, unfortunately the third is something you will have to live with
Part 1
The first thing we will address is the free spooling issue, which is a result of the grease. As we know these are made in China, and they chose the cheapest grease, read glue, I have ever seen. This stuff was insanely tacky, but I am assuming the winch will be fine with less tacky grease, I did a pull with mine and it seemed fine after the re-greasing.
To start off:
Gather your supplies:
- At least 2 rolls of good paper towels
-Mineral Spirits
-Good quality grease, only need one tub
-Old toothbrush
-Bucket
-Brake Cleaner
Dismount your winch from the mounting surface and bring it to a bench to work on it, this is will be a very messy process and is not possible with the winch still on the car
Next loosen all of the allen bolts holding on the gear cover, these are small so be careful not to lose them
Here is what you should have now, all the bolts, and the PAPER gasket between the gear cover and mating surface. If you are careful you can reuse this gasket, otherwise you will just use RTV to seal it.
Now this is what you should see inside the winch
Grab ahold of the gear assembly and wiggle is out, not very hard to do. The grease holds most of it together. It should all pull out as one unit, minus the thrid planetary gear set. You can then reach in and pull the remaining gear set out.
Uh...yea
Forgive me here, because the picture taking slowed down, it gets REALLY messy.
Here are the gears separated and cleaned.
The best way I found to remove this grease is with mineral spirits.
-Pour mineral spirits in a small bucket
-Put gear in bucket
-Scrub with old tooth brush.
It is a good method and gets them pretty darn clean. I didn't bother with completely disassembling each individual planetary gear set, but if you are really worried about getting all of that crappy grease out that is the best way to do it.
Also very important. When you are cleaning it you will have noticed these two plastic washers. These go between the second and third set of planetary gears, they will remain in place until you start cleaning. The grease holds them on pretty good
To clean the inside of the winch, I used brake cleaner. It dissolves the grease and with the help of a brush and some paper towels you can get the majority of it removed.
NOW....repack the gears with grease, very easy to do and then reassemble. The photos of the clean gear set show which way they go in, but if for some reason you get confused this is really good reference.
XRC8 Free-spool Fix - JeepForum.com
Once the gears are greased and back in place put the cover back on with the paper gasket, or RTV. Also make sure to put some grease on the clutch lever, you can see where is should go when you look at the cover, it makes it quite a bit easier to engage and disengage.
Part 2
Next we will be fixing the solenoid. The problem is that the crappy rubber gasket in the solenoid lets water get in, which is not a good thing. Replacing this gasket with RTV will solve any water getting in.
What you will need:
RTV or some type of sealant
Dielectric Grease
Here is the solenoid with the plastic cover removed.
Remove the four allen bolts holding it together.
[imghttp://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee259/Dous07/IMG_0706.jpg[/img]
Separate the two halves, you will see these 4 springs, they are hold in place, but can fall out pretty easily so keep an eye on them
Here you can see the seal, it is not very good, also you can review the benefits of nitrile over latex.
Apply your RTV in the groove of the surface and mate them together. Easy.
Here you can see where I put some RTV on the outside of the solenoid where the wire enters. I am assuming this is where water is getting in normally, I wanted as much water resistance as possible
Next I put dielectric grease over all the connections to prevent future corrosion.
Put it all back together and you are done!
You CAN polish a t.urd
All buttoned up
In review
After testing the winch free spools SO much easier, it used to take two people to free spool the thing. Now I can literally grab the thimble with my pinky and free spool it. It is also quieter during operation, but in nature this is a noisy winch. Also by waterproofing the solenoid I won't have to worry about it failing on me, like it has to so many other people.
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