A quick look at the Hickey worm gear winch

[jeffahart]

Originally Posted by Orange Crate

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?

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.



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



j

[Orange Crate]

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.

[jeffahart]

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.


J

[jeffahart]

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!

[Orange Crate]

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.

[Orange Crate]

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.

[jeffahart]

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




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.




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.




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.




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.






j

[jeffahart]

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


Letter paint


Mounted



j

[Green Monster]

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