Warn Winch Warning

ATTN: Paladine and others with a Power Plant winch.
I neglected to check my winch housing often enough I guess.
I tried to switch to free spool and the lever would not fully engage.
So I pulled the ten screws to see what up.
It appears on the right hand side some rust on the gasket as if that might have been where some water entered.
There is also a rubber gasket that is under the lever but it looks good.
The liquid in there now is PB Blaster.
On the left is a too small allen head screw that holds the lever in place but of course it will not move. NO anti-seize on it. So I drilled it out to remove the lever and see how that worked.
The ring gear is steel and the housing is aluminum, not a good mix. It should have had more grease and anti'seize slathered on it.
I see signs of rust on some parts but no water was present.
I tried all kinds of methods to remove that ring gear and it is stuck, realllll good.
So after a search I found the best price on that assembly and even though the lever is good the set screw that had a smooth tip for about a quarter of an inch is now non-existent so I will have to get that set.
The housing comes with gaskets which I will also apply silicone sealant to like I would have thought it would have had.
SOOOO do it now, open that up and lube the hell out of it!! or wait and pay $277.03!!!

Found the parts here.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/WRN-74302/
http://www.summitracing.com/search/?keyword=warn 74303&dds=1

Damn, it's always something crazy. Thanks for the heads up, Hunner.

I had the same problem on my Warn, however I did submerge mine. I used maring grade grease, and also used silicone on re assembly. I now run the line out once a month just to keep things moving and freed up.

http://www.hummer4x4offroad.com/forum/showthread.php?2701-Warn-Winch-Service

An up date. Local place I got the winches from made me a deal on the whole end assembly with lever.
So it was time to get even. After a week soaking in PB Blaster, I used a little fire and ice method.
Oven and dry ice and a chisel and BFH.
I will have to try to tap the allen head screw hole out and see if I can get something to fit.
I will just clean this up and use it as a spare. I'm a hoarder!

What did they charge you for the assembly (if you dont mind) ? I was thinking id replace mine as well next time I remove my bumper for any reason. I had to soak that end cap in PB as well to break it free.

Same thing happened to me. I think the best maintenance is to freespool it every month or so. As far as the lubricating oil, I used Marvel Mystery Oil to lubricate the housing/ring gear and (so far), that seems to be doing fine. I've also taken the lever off at least once and just dumped a very small amount of MMO in the lever hole to keep it lubed.

I did this same maintenance last may, i found the grease a little dried out and some water contamination....cleaned the whole gear assembly and lube the heck out of it then applied some silicone on top of the gaskets. Works like a charm.

I think his cost from Warn was $180. He charged me $200 and some change, that included gaskets, hub, ring gear and lever with oring.
I wanted to support my local guy. I bought two winches from him.
I looked closer and the first part number includes all of the pieces.
So I did not have to buy the lever separate.
My lever is ok but I destroyed the pin and enlarged the hole in the hub that holds it.
I will definitely liberally coat the pin, allen head screw that holds the lever when I install it with anti-seize.

Actually, when i first bought this winch, the 2nd time i've used it...it died on me on 500ft. of mud...it still under warranty on that time but what's the use of the winch, when you really need it and it's dead. So i returned it to warn repair center. They found out that the planetary gear holder weld broke off and caused the gears to grind on each other. Since then, the technician from warn told me to do the maintenance at least twice a year especially when crossing the water just to check the conditions on the planetary gears and grease for water contamination.

I finally got my new parts. There is only a thin film of some sort of light oil on the gear. That can't be right!! I'm going to see if I contact them they have any suggestions.
Otherwize after seeing how little tolerance there is I'm thinking some light lithium spray grease might be the thing to try. There is a suction below the splined gear I can hear when I test the lever without it on the winch. Thick grease may make it difficult to operate.
I learned one thing, I will leave it in spool in mode, just in case.

Pressure switch and thermal switch
http://www.hummer4x4offroad.com/forum/showthread.php?4799-Warn-Power-Plant-pressure-switch

A lot of good information here!