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Posted by David Sherman [24.32.202.83] on Tuesday, December 01, 2009 at 14:15:31 :
I decided to dig into the winch on my beater M37, since I might need it when I head out into the snow. When I got it, it had been used hard with no oil in it, and I drained about half a cup of water and bronze dust out of the housing. The winch is mounted to home-made bumper that's the most massive piece of welding I've ever seen on a vehicle of that size. It's not only heavy (3/4" plate) but complicated. I'm not even sure it's possible to get the winch out, since many of the bolted-together parts are also welded.
I took the cover off the gear housing (after torching out part of the bumper) and I can't see how to get the big bronze gear out. There seems to be a pin through the shaft such that the gear has to come off from the other side (the drum side), which means I do have to take the whole winch assembly off somehow. Is that correct?
Also, the bronze bushing in the gearbox cover is all worn out and the shaft is very badly scored all over (lots of grooves deep enough to catch a fingernail). If I end up having to take the whole thing apart, I guess I could try to turn it on the lathe and make an over-sized bronze bushing somehow. I see there's no center in the end of the shaft, though, so getting it centered on the lathe may not be so easy. Maybe at the slow speeds that a winch turns it would be okay to not be centered very well. The other option is to sleeve it, which probably also requires an oversized bushing. I haven't measured the clearance yet, but just by feel I'd say it's probably in the .020-.050 range somewhere. So, my second question is will a speedi-sleeve work for a load-bearing shaft running in a bronze bushing, or are they strictly for sealing purposes? I could see it getting worn through, especially with a badly scored shaft under it, and then cutting into the bronze even faster. Once I make some measurements, I'll call the bearing house and see what I can find in terms of bronze bushings, and maybe they'll have an idea about the sleeve too.
All of this depends on the gear that I have working. I bought a gear off of ebay a couple years ago that was billed as a steel replacement for the bronze gear, but I have my doubts. It was a lot cheaper than the bronze one, so I took a chance on it, but I'm not even sure if it's for that winch or not.
Lastly, the winch clutch lever is missing, as they tend to be. Has anyone here made their own? It seems like it shouldn't take too much to fabricate something that would work even if it's not much like the original design.
By the way, thanks for all the advice on the body panel welding. I'm going to pick up a $150 unit from Harbor Freight, which does claim to use real gas as well as flux wire, and see how it works. It may be fine or I may just use it for practice and then decide I need a better one. I'm willing to spend $150 to find out. My first body work will be flat surfaces or at most a curve in one dimension, and will be painted with semigloss paint, so it shouldn't be too tricky to do a half-decent job of it.
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