Using the current circumstances to finally dig into my "new" 1978 vintage 8274. Bought it from the original owner out in western PA. He used it on an old Scout. He sold the Scout a long time ago and kept the winch in the garage. Winch works great but I have a little freshening work to do before mounting it to the FJ40. The steel cable had some real stories to tell so it was the first to go. Next, I popped the top to see if any /how much oil was present in the housing. Turned out to be ~1.5 ounces. Enough to bench run but certainly not enough for field use! Even though I could have put in fresh oil, buttoned it up and mounted it, the look of rust on the brake got the better of me. So I decided to take the brake off and give it a soak in Evaporust. And that's where the fight began. Most advise that before removing the circlip that retains the outer brake housing onto the shaft, you should secure the front and back of the housing with a vice grip to keep it all from "leaping" off the shaft from the spring tension kept at bay by only the circlip. So, I was prepared to stop the explosion of ball bearings and other bits as I carefully removed the circlip. After removing the circlip, nothing happened. It took a week of PB Blaster soaking, tapping, heating and coaxing with a gear puller to get the rust to let loose of the brake assembly. Finally got everything off last night and into the rust removal bath!
before I could even think about test-driving the Trekker again.
