I thought I'd do a bit of housekeeping yesterday and lower the spare wheel, inspect it and grease the mechanism.
All went fine until I winched it back up, making sure the cable was under tension all the time. Only trouble that when it got to the top the bloody thing decided to just keep going round and didn't come to a nice 'done up' tightness!
Result the wheel is just floating at the top of its travel and not jammed against the body.
Worst of all undoing doesn't lower the wheel!
Any known remedies?
I've seen the video of one in America being 'remade' as the shaft has a square on the end and the plate the shaft goes through comes off!
If I could get the wheel down then it is easy to take the unit off and maybe repair it without cutting the cable, but how do I get the wheel down, attach the wheel to a fence post and drive off, as it doesn't want to come down with normal human force!
Not wanting to be beaten, I watched a couple of 'how to replace' Youtube videos, so I had an idea for how everything is fixed.
Four nuts and two bolts hold it up.
All of them can be got at through a 19" alloy rim, not possible with a space saver or 18" rim by the way.
Also I was lucky the wheel could be rotated to make getting at the nuts and bolts much easier.
With all nuts and bolts undone I thought it would be just a case of catching the wheel as it dropped down!
Not a bit of it as the unit is wedged into a flat bit of the chassis to give it a bit of strength.
I really had to struggle with the wheel to get a bit more slack in the cable to drop the wheel a bit for some movement to allow it to slide out from its 'shelf'.
I used an impact driver to unwind the cable while putting as much downward force on the wheel as I could.
Remember that the whole idea of the winch is to NOT let the wheel down until you wind out the cable!
Joggling along the road won't loosen the wheel at least it shouldn't.
Anyway it eventually came out of the shelf and the wheel dropped down.
I am in the process of taking the winch apart to find out what went wrong internally.
The cover is held on by 4 pretty tough rivety things which I'll have to break off tomorrow.
Photos to come when this is done for the benefit of anybody who wants to see what's inside.
Ian
10th Feb 2018 7:26 pm
life - live it
Member Since: 14 Apr 2017
Location: Behind you
Posts: 1022
Yep, happened to me.
Decided to under seal the rear of the D3.
Lowered the spare wheel, removed the wheel and then started to wind it back up. Then it stopped winding.
Took it off, brought it to work to get my fitter to have a look at it.
In the end I bit the bullet and bought a new one for £50 off flea bay
Less hassle, and you know it will last for a while
10th Feb 2018 7:42 pm
Erea
Member Since: 19 Mar 2012
Location: Munster
Posts: 1509
Mine went as well but I think what caused mine was the tyre repair shop used an impact gun to drop and lift the tyre, I’ve heard since NEVER use an impact gun to wind them. Very soon after I couldn’t get the tyre up fully but Un like you got the tyre back down.
I took off the winder and opened it and fixed it. Put it back on and wound put the wheel. Following day noticed the spare was slightly loose and I could wind it up but it would drop an inch when I stopped.
Took it off and apart three times before finally giving up and getting a replacement.
Now I must try letting down the spare to see if the new one still works as I must admit I haven’t used it in at least 3 years
10th Feb 2018 7:57 pm
Damomerlin
Member Since: 17 Dec 2017
Location: York
Posts: 106
Do they all have a winch I've never looked at mine or filled it with air lol .
10th Feb 2018 8:31 pm
galwaygreen
Member Since: 30 Oct 2011
Location: plymouth
Posts: 6525
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