Winch project from a year ago with new question

[Zachary Hoyt]

I finally got myself together and bolted the winch up to the frame and hooked it to the tractor. I then filled the gear box with 80-90, ran the winch briefly to see that it was working and got out the cable. The top photo shows how long the cable is, before I ran it onto the drum. As I was watching it winding the gear oil began to leak from both sides of the gearbox where the drum shaft comes out. I am wondering if I should take it apart and replace the seals or put in flowable grease that I have heard about on here or look for one of those 'miracle' products that swell rubber and stop leaks. If the correct answer is A, which I suspect, could anyone tell me if there is a place I could find a parts diagram or other information about how to take it apart? I am hoping that I can get seals through NAPA, or our local industrial supply house. The drum has the letters GW inside a circle, which I imagine may be the manufacturers mark. Any advice will be much appreciated.
Zach

 

[smallercrawler]

Zach-at a guess, Garwood worm drive winch? Good luck with it.

 

[sixtyninegmc]

I have a braden PTO winch, same basic design, and john deere cornhead grease or 00 semi-fluid grease will stop most all of your leaking. In my case I did replace the seals, but my shafts were grooved so bad that they still leaked, just not as bad. 80-90 will cool the gears better if you put a lot of long, hard pulls on the winch.

 

[wilson ind]

how does it reverse???

 

[Zachary Hoyt]

It has a mechanism that allows it to free wheel so I should be able to drag the cable to what ever I'm pulling and hook it on. There is no power reverse as far as I can tell.
Zach

 

[Zachary Hoyt]

Thanks for the advice. I'm not intending to use it too hard, just to
skid logs out of places that are too steep for the tractor, so I think
it should maybe stay cool enough.
Zach

 

[Zachary Hoyt]

Thank you, I will search for Garwood winch.
Zach

 

[ohiojim]

looks a lot like the setup i made, except i had to mount a hydraulic motor to turn mine so i could have reverse mine didn't have free spool capability

 

[PJH]

Nice winch Zach. There's an old guy who lives about a mile from me who mounted a winch on a heavy three point rear blade. The blade is reversed, and it sucks right down in the ground to anchor him when he's pulling. I've got a nice 60:1 right angle gear box that I've always thought would make the beginning of a winch, but after seeing yours, I think my box is too small.

Paul

 

[Ken Macfarlane]

Its a worm drive gearset, likely should be a type of grease in there
normally due to the sliding surfaces on the faces of the gears.

 

[JMOR]

(quoted from post at 17:10:34 02/13/12) I finally got myself together and bolted the winch up to the frame and hooked it to the tractor. I then filled the gear box with 80-90, ran the winch briefly to see that it was working and got out the cable. The top photo shows how long the cable is, before I ran it onto the drum. As I was watching it winding the gear oil began to leak from both sides of the gearbox where the drum shaft comes out. I am wondering if I should take it apart and replace the seals or put in flowable grease that I have heard about on here or look for one of those 'miracle' products that swell rubber and stop leaks. If the correct answer is A, which I suspect, could anyone tell me if there is a place I could find a parts diagram or other information about how to take it apart? I am hoping that I can get seals through NAPA, or our local industrial supply house. The drum has the letters GW inside a circle, which I imagine may be the manufacturers mark. Any advice will be much appreciated.
Zach

re you sure you didn't overfill it....above what I see as a level check plug?

 

[Zachary Hoyt]

I should have said that better. I filled it up level with the bottom of
the side plug. The oil level is halfway up the worm gear when full.
I did some reading online and one person said that the worm gear
should always be on the bottom, so now I am wondering if I could
have mounted the winch to the 3 point hitch frame upside down? I
am pondering but haven't figured that one out yet. I don't know
why I have it the way up that it is, except that it never occurred to
me to do it any other way.
Zach

 

[samn40]

Here is a photo of a Ferguson winch, you may want to copy the anchor mechanism which hinges down at the rear of the frame. Also check out the method of attaching the unit to the tractor, the top link is a special design with a bar down to the bottom of the unit so as not to pull the back out of the tractor!.
Sam

 

[VADAVE]

Maybe a flowable grease like Corn Head Grease?

 

[ohiojim]

you're not upside down, you have it right,.just lower the oil level below the seals and the bull gear will carry enough oil up to the worm gear,...i don't think you'll use it enough to hurt it

 

[dhs]

The person that said that the worm gear
should always be on the bottom knew what he was talking about. You have that winch mounted upside down.

 

[430WLPG]

It's up side down the worm should be covered with oil all the time and the bull gear only needs oil where it is engaged with the worm and it turns slow enough it would never carry enough to leak much and odds are it has rope packing for aseal on the shaft

 

[Zachary Hoyt]

So if I turn it the other way up do I only put in oil to the level of the plug halfway up the side? It would seem like it would maybe not get enough oil to where the gears actually mesh that way. I'm just trying to figure out all of the issues before I go ahead and change it.
Zach

 

[Anonymous-0]

I'l 3rd that upside down.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Pose to have a two way pto. truns one way to go up nother to go down.

 

[Tony in Mass.]

My vote is it is upside down too. The 4 bolt holes on the flat bosses on the casting on top? a clue?? Does it leak from somewheres else too? Like a tiny air vent hole or leakey plug- cause it is a vent too? Flip it over, just sitting on the ground awhile, see if the leaks stop. Then re-engineer your mounts. Looks like it might be easier than you think. Did you ever post a pic of this and the tractor on the Massey forum?
BTW, you are right. These things don't 'power reverse'. That was invented after human males lost their muscles. If this thing went into reverse with 200 feet of cable, someone would have a big bowl of spaggetti to deal with.