Winch brake?

[NJV6]

Hi all,
I have bought a new Ridge Ryder 9500 winch for the bale feeder which is mounted on the back of the farm hilux. I pulled the gearbox off from new and regreased it as suggested I do on various sites. It even has seals, more than can be said for my 9000 warn.

It works! but something is amuck and looking for suggestions before I remove the deck panels to return it to supercheap. When I tighten the rope up and go to wind it out again it just goes click and no action. Thankfully the freespool lever is big enough that i could turn it to let pressure off, then it winds out fine. it winds in under load fine.

Does anyone know how the brake works on this, why the hell would it not back out with any load on it?
Also the free spool is pretty stiff.

[Crash bandicoot]

put the brake back inside the drum the right way round?

[NJV6]

Didn't take it out. Only put some oil stabiliser in the gearbox to compliment the grease in there as there was actually not a bad coating of grease!

[Team Tonka]

The brake is inside the drum at the motor end. Its an ingenious little device, but too small so shits itself very easily. I've met a few of those winches and they are next to useless. Take it back, get a refund, and buy a Runva winch would be my advice.

[Crash bandicoot]

The brake is inside the drum at the motor end. Its an ingenious little device, but too small so shits itself very easily. I've met a few of those winches and they are next to useless. Take it back, get a refund, and buy a Runva winch would be my advice.

really, useless, and the drums are no different to most other winches so how can it be too small?

[Mattman]

I can't manually pull the rope out when the free spool is disengaged as the gearing against the motor makes it impossible to turn.

Sounds like the solenoid might be faulty. Reverse the wiring from the battery and see if the winch works in reverse.

[DieselBoy]

Sounds electrical to me. Thinking solenoid pack playing games, or connections at winch motor end. As suggested, swap wires round in winch motor so in becomes out, out becomes in and see if the symptoms change.

[Team Tonka]

The brake mechanism is different to most winches. Its like a 3 legged stool with barrel bearings either side each leg which are in a pear shaped cam. Any drive trying to come back through it, locks it. Like I said its a clever design. I have 3 of these winches all in parts down the shed. I had one, lasted half a dozen winches before it gave up. They replaced it on warranty. That one didn't fare much better and was the first in the box. Two more have come my way and not been worth fixing so ended up in the box too. Have parts for them if any one interested but no working brakes.

[kbjj]

Free spool on these is stiff due to seals on drum and sticky gearbox and brake grease I think. I'm running one of these and have rebuilt the gearbox with bushes as needle roller bearings failed (outer races had multiple splits) and welded each planetary stage back together. IMHO good for general, intermittent recovery work, but don't be shy about using a pulley block to lighten its load to lengthen its life. Also recommend re-terminating brush earth inside motor, using a high tensile bolt, sanding off paint etc