Re: A quick look at the Hickey worm gear winch
 

Nice one, you think maybe a lock would be better so nobody will play with it?
From free to lock, approx. how many degrees? 12 or so?

Re: A quick look at the Hickey worm gear winch
 

I would guess less than 10 maybe 8. You don't have to move it very far to slap the dog to clutch. But if you're needing to know I can put an angle finder on it for you and let you know the exact movement.

Thought about a small lock, but if someone really wants to take the time to remove the hitch pin and mess with it.... then I probably got bigger problems. Plus I lose keys; and I like the convenience of everything accessible up front and ready for service, kind of a no frills deal.... just business.

Re: A quick look at the Hickey worm gear winch
 

Calling this project done for now. It'll be awhile before I get around to making a skid plate or custom bumper. Though I have decided on an aux battery setup in the near future. I didn't mind cutting my bumper, taking a serious look at it I decided I need an new one.

Before and after pics.

Re: A quick look at the Hickey worm gear winch
 

Nicely done, really looks great. How do you post pics here? I use your thread as inspiration to start my worm drive rebuild. Bruce
Posted via Mobile Device

Re: A quick look at the Hickey worm gear winch
 

Thanks Bruce, I really love the winch!

Posting pics is a two part deal.
1) Go to manage attachments below your post, before you submit the post,and browse for the image and click upload.
2) After the image is uploaded go to the paper clip in the tool bar and select the image to get the tag of the image to show in the text you are typing. This way you can write something above or below the image, by typing above or below the image tag.

If you only do step 1 your pics will be lumped together.

Re: A quick look at the Hickey worm gear winch
 

nice write up. i have a worm drive winch. the clutch handle is stuck and i can't move it to free. what do you think is wrong?

Re: A quick look at the Hickey worm gear winch
 

Either the handle shaft or dog are rusted. But everything on the handle side of the case gets rusted. You just need to pull that end of the case off, wire brush it and grease it up. That is most likely the problem. When I first ran mine to test the motor, before disassembly, it kept popping out of gear. And that's because it never fully engaged due to rust. The iron is so heavy that the rust should just wire brush off!

Re: A quick look at the Hickey worm gear winch
 

Why do you not like the mounts?

Re: A quick look at the Hickey worm gear winch
 

I was critical of the mounts on my first visual inspection because of the notch. That was just my first thoughts really. But the mount iron is 5/16(darn thick!). So I'm guessing they accounted for the notching with the thicker iron. I'm guessing some other things will bend before the mounts. No longer an issue for me.

I will be leaving the winch mounted as is.

Re: A quick look at the Hickey worm gear winch
 

Got rid of the roller fairlead and replaced with a steel hawse. Painted everything black and did some painting on the grill. Working on second battery now.

Attachment 1700243

j

Re: A quick look at the Hickey worm gear winch
 

that's a nice option that keeps the stock pumper. grats!

Re: A quick look at the Hickey worm gear winch
 

That IS very nice! Good job.

Re: A quick look at the Hickey worm gear winch
 

jeffahart and dazza,
Thanks for the great pictures and install/rebuild info. I might be the proud owner of one of these by the end of the week. I paid by Paypal and have tracking numbers but sometimes you just never know about interweb purchases.....If I need to go through it when it arrives I'll be using your guidance here for sure so thanks again.

jeffahart, I like the clean look of the hawse fairlead, I'll be using the same set up on my bumper that just got delivered last week. Here is what it is going on. I have tow hooks so I'll be skipping the shackles.

Re: A quick look at the Hickey worm gear winch
 

One of the things you can do with a steel hawse is stick your finger around a ball or u-joint and finger scrape a bit of excess grease; and then swab the hawse hole before you run line. Helps a bit, especially if you have a used hawse with a bit of rust.

Re: A quick look at the Hickey worm gear winch
 

Nice, post some pics if you can... no two installs go the same!

Re: A quick look at the Hickey worm gear winch
 

By converting to the larger diameter seal and gear that matches, it allows the removal of the motor to replace the seal and NOT have to remove the drive gear (to replace seals) as you did with the old small gear and small diameter seals (seals were installed behind the drive gear). I am sure with the smooth shaft and woodruff key it will be easier to remove the gear if you have to but, it would not be mandatory to remove the drive gear when the seal needs to be replaced.

Re: A quick look at the Hickey worm gear winch
 

Salient point Orange Crate! Are you are still traumatized from pulling that gear? I am! Worried you might have to do it again? :lol:

Anyhow, if you have access to a machine shop, and if you have to replace the motor, I would get the large collar gear and seal kit and give it a good look over. I didn't want to pay to have my motor fixed, and the only new one I found was north of $300 (a kings ransom for a simple motor like this). So I went with the cheap maintainable route. I'm not calling my decision good or bad, just my decision when I was at the motor/gear crossroad! In the end I got the 10 spline motor working, go figure! I gave it to Bruce. You can have my old gear if you want it, pretty sure I still have it. Might be in a bit better shape than yours, not sure. I can dig it up an photo if your interested. :chevy:

j

Re: A quick look at the Hickey worm gear winch
 

Yes, still recovering from that gear work:b69:. I do have access to a very decent machine shop and will be going the same route that you took. It will be easier to get parts and maintain after converting to the newer gear and seal. I don't know anyone who would say "I won't need to maintain that" although most winches probably don't see much action. The winch I have was covered in silicone sealant and that seal in particular was covered in it, so I know it was leaking and the previous owner obviously attempted to cure the issue but couldn't get that drive gear off. I just got back from my business trip so looking forward to some quality time with the winch and bead blaster. More pictures of the Hickey winch to follow...how kool is that going to be? Who doesn't want more pictures of Hickey winches...?

Re: A quick look at the Hickey worm gear winch
 

I figure if I have to swap my motor I will pull the winch and probably open the transfer case; but it will be nice to not have to pull the gear. I'm now looking forward to the hex nut stripping out after it freezes! :lol:

But my main point I wanted to make besides being a smart A$$. Regarding leaking transfer seals, if they do leak and you went with the old setup... I think these transfers are a perfect candidate for corn head grease. If you've never herd of the John Deere Corn Head grease check it out. In a nutshell, it's grease until it get's warmed up by the gears, then it becomes an oil. Then thickens again when it cools. It won't leak. These things aren't like transmissions or rear ends, they run short bursts at low speed. So a maintenance free lubricant is tempting. I wouldn't hesitate to use it in the main housing with the worm and bronze gear either.

I considered filling mine with corn head grease. When I put the oil in I wondered if I would ever change it, not likely. So, I considered a fire and forget lubricant like the corn head grease. But I put oil in for the bench test and it's stayed that way so far.

I run the winch line out about five feet every time I wash the truck, just to keep oil spun up in the top. If I used the corn head grease, it would stick a bit better up high and I could probably go quite a while without running the winch.

Just another two cents! :chevy:

Oh and yes... Pics Pics Pics... we love pictures of winches!

j

Re: A quick look at the Hickey worm gear winch
 

Hhmmm, corn head grease, that's a new one for me. Let everyone know how that turns out. I do have a question about how you mounted yours. I mocked mine up (no guts inside it just the end cases and mount bars). When I put the unit up to the frame the mount bars hit the leaf spring shackles. Specifically they hit the mounting rivets of shackle. I doesn't matter if I move the winch slightly back or more forward, it will hit either way. Also if I do move the whole unit more forward I run out of frame to drill any new holes (the holes would be too close to the frame edge). Do you have any close up pics of your mounts, maybe from the bottom? Did you have to use any shims to get it to work?

Re: A quick look at the Hickey worm gear winch
 

Here you go! And the notch was already in the mounting bar, I didn't carve it out. Mine bolted right in, but I did make some bad assumptions at first,like trying to put it inside the frame channel.

Attachment 1708966

This is the driver side, note the motor on driver side.

Attachment 1708968

j

Re: A quick look at the Hickey worm gear winch
 

jeffahart
Thanks for those pictures. I edited the color of the first one and can clearly see how yours mounts. My mounts are slightly different. I have those angled "feet" on both front and back mount and I do not have any angle iron. I can also see that you have the angle iron on the rear and my aft piece it is 3/8" flat stock with the "feet" welded on. I would hate to have to give up that mount as it is really beefy so I'll take a look at moving the feet. If you zoom in on the attached pic you can see both of the mounts that came with my winch. Thanks again for the pics.

Re: A quick look at the Hickey worm gear winch
 

I would get angle iron and cut it like shown below. I think you will save a crap load of time. In the attached photo what you cannot see is the tab sticking out where the angle iron was cut out has about a 3-4 degree twist to match the slope of the frame. Plus those mounting feet drop the winch about an inch, and that's a lot with the tight fit, so the regular angle iron will put it a bit higher it the frame rails. If you get 1/4" iron it will be plenty strong. It's what they sell now for them, plus the mounting holes are already drilled. You can vise the angle iron and put a slight twist on the mounting cutout to match the angled slope of the frame. I thought my iron was 5/16 when I measured. but the link below shows 1/4". But you could check out Ramsey too, if you choose to go that route.

https://www.piercesales.com/universa...-mounts-ps654/


That tab is twisted to match the slope of the frame! I can take a picture of the twist ir you like. These photos are just what I took during install.
Attachment 1709126

J

Re: A quick look at the Hickey worm gear winch
 

Also, as long as you have to do some mounting fab... if you have good clamps, clamp the thing up there and put the bumper up to it. It's a tight fit and maybe you could jockey a 1/4" this way or that to make sure the bumper fits nice, before you drill the frame. I hate drilling my frame!

Re: A quick look at the Hickey worm gear winch
 

Hey, thanks again. I won't be buying any mounts I'll make my own for sure. I apperciate the tip on mounting the bumper, I wouldn't have thought about doing that. I just bought a new front bumper so good reason to unwrap that thing.

Re: A quick look at the Hickey worm gear winch
 

So I ended up reusing the mounts that came with the winch. I cut the feet off of the rear mount and re-welded them. At the same time I put the mounts on top of the frame before re-welding. It was a good thing that I cut those feet off the mount, it didn't take much, just two quick cuts with a cut off wheel and they snapped right off. The rear mount is 1/2' thick but the feet were just butt welded. The 1/2" ends weren't beveled to provide good penetration of the weld. I beveled the ends and used to passes to fill in the valleys. First pic is drives side and second is the other. I have plenty of clearance from the motor to the radiator support. I just have to reverse the hardware for my tow hooks and maybe work on the winch mount ends a little to remove some material to let the bolts fit beside them. Alright it's cookin' time. Happy T day.

Re: A quick look at the Hickey worm gear winch
 

Switched over from oil to #0 Corn Head grease.

Did some puttering in the garage on Fathers Day. I decided to take care of the lube job. The winch is now a part of my LO. It needs to be because it hangs there and is really susceptible to neglect. I try to run it every time I wash the truck but I mostly forget. So keeping the fluids changed is really important, because it rarely gets run and for only a short couple minutes. For me, this winch is mostly a period artifact. But it does need to be maintained in working order, it can't just hang there and be expected to perform after months of neglect! I figure once the grease liquefies and splatters, the internals will have a protective coating that will stick. I really think it's a problem with 30W in the transfer.

Onto the maintenance free solution! I ditched the oils and pumped in the #0 Corn Head grease. Here's what I did and how much I used.

I ran the winch for a bit to get the oils warmed up for draining.

I made an adapter for the grease gun and screwed it into the bottom of the Main gear case then the bottom of the transfer case. I used one tube in the transfer and a tube and a quarter in the main gear case. I ran the winch occasionally as I pumped in the grease.

Below you will see that the transfer gear with only a few pumps of oil, enough for the gear to dip it's toe, will dredge the grease and liquefy it quickly.

Anyhow, onto the application. After the application, the winch runs way smoother.



Below you can see the transfer gear viewed from the top of the case

Attachment 1794216


I ran the winch motor after only a few pumps of grease in the transfer case. You can see a small bead of grease running on top of the gear.

Attachment 1794212


It's hard to tell from the picture, but I posted it for illustration. With only a few pumps the grease is already liquefied and running on the gear.

Attachment 1794213


After about 6oz, the recommended capacity for oil, the grease is everywhere and blocking the hole at the top of the case. I pumped in the rest of the tube. Probably about 12 to 13oz.

Attachment 1794214


This is the oil fill hole in the main case running the motor with recommended 6oz fluid capacity. I pumped in the rest of the tube and another few ounces from a third tube. Total of about 16oz.

Attachment 1794215




j

Re: A quick look at the Hickey worm gear winch
 

Another item on my Fathers Day puttering in the garage. I made a steel On/Off label for my Moroso power switch. The red sticker made it look like a service panel switch.

Used 1/16 plate and painted like the hasp plate. Sometimes I just can't leave the garage and need to tinker!

Red Sticker from Moroso
Attachment 1794229

Letter paint
Attachment 1794231

Mounted
Attachment 1794232


j

Re: A quick look at the Hickey worm gear winch
 

Two year old thread but wanted to mention this looks so clean! Nice work and thanks for sharing.