"Waterprrofing" winches

[disco stu]

So I've scored a Warn XD9000 for cheap. Needs some maintenance though, bearing in motor rusted out and a fair bit of corrosion in the motor which I'm trying to deal with.

This got me thinking about methods of making the motor more water resistant. I've long been of the opinion that trying to seal things like winches is an exercise in futility, as water will find a way in somehow and then you seal that water in. Letting the water out that inevitably gets in seems a better idea to me.

Anyway, first of all I figured I need to coat the parts of the motor so any water that gets in won't cause any issues. My concern here though is possibly killing the enamel insulation on the motor windings, so I'm avoiding coating with oil. I've found good success with good oil boiled linseed oil rustproofing things in my wet garage, and it won't run off or get washed off like many lubricants. I'm thinking of coating steel parts only like on armature and under the field windings and baking this on.

For the rest of the motor, the only thing I can think of is coating in silicone/dielectric grease.

I'm then also pondering installing some drains onto both the motor and gearbox ends. Water will get in past the ends of the drum/spool, so I need to make sure that gets out.

While I only paid $50 for the winch, I would still like to see as much life out of it as possible

Anyway, keen to hear thoughts on the best way to go about this. I figure its a discussion many on here could benefit from and many could also contribute to.

Cheers, Stu

[NJV6]

I can probably Help here, I have run a xd9000 for 16 years now and has had a lot of dunkings and abuse.

The biggest issue is the brake inside the drum getting shit in there and you can’t keep it out. I have had to replace mine.

I just accept water getting in and hopefully out again. I don’t run any grease in the gearbox end as grease and water don’t mix, it goes hard etc. So wash it out with petrol and replace it with only moreys heavy duty oil stabiliser. It’s sticky stuff and water repellant, my gears still look as new. The Solinoid pack is also way over complicated and far better replaced with a newer More compact style.

The motor earths are pretty poor as well but can be modified to make far more robust.

[disco stu]

Cheers for that. I haven't even popped off the gear side yet, but got the motor stripped completely to try and deal with the corrosion. Bearing rusted out also.

Interesting what you say about ditching the grease. I pondered that a sealed oil filled gearbox would be more effective than the current style with grease.

Haven't even looked at the solenoids yet, but recurring theme is how crap they are

For a $2500 winch designed for the front of a 4wd I would have expected better corrosion prevention inside the motor at least

[Scooby]

Have you had a look at Corrosion X.
Supposed to be the ducks nuts for these type of applications.

[disco stu]

I'll check it out. One concern is the effect it may have on motor winding insulation enamel.

Just had a search on the earthing mods. I thought the idea for earth connection to brushes on these was crap, and see I'm not alone. Corrosion is bad in that area, which I cleaned up, but drilling and tapping for small screws to hold it down is much better

[old Jack]

The winch competition guys often use compressed air to pressurise the internals of the winch so water and mud does not enter the winch. The airflow also helps keep the temperatures down.

OJ.

[disco stu]

That's a good idea I think, would only want low pressure though. Still need vents down low though to let any water out that may get it

[NJV6]

Yea ditch the grease but don’t put too much oil stabiliser as it is sticky stuff and will make the freespool hard to use. The Aisin winches run in ATF oil but are probably a cost point higher than these!

I wouldn’t bother with air pressure, it’s just another thing to remember to switch on and from my experience so long as the water can get out easily then it doesn’t really alter the life of the motor. If you were using it for extended periods then it could be useful for cooling.

[disco stu]

Yeah, I'm not going down that road, I just like the idea. I figure you would really want air moving through whenever it rains or for any splashes coming up, so would really need to be pumping air all the time for it to be useful.

My thinking is like yours-ensure it can drain well. I'm going to also make sure things are protected from corrosion inside also

Currently got armature in the oven baking on the billed linseed oil. About to do the other steel bits and then move onto the gearbox, compare to the super winch and see what will be better from there

[disco stu]

So it seems it is possible to waterproof the warn wiinches according to some info that I found. I've attached the document here that details things, as well as how to rewind the brake if you don't keep that compressed when you remove. The key is the AS144 O-rings for the ends of the drum. I could only get bs144, but they are the same dimensions.

They seem to recommend sealing the whole thing up, but I still think a drain hole at the bottom is important. For some reason they say that the drain holes end up the wrong way, but going by the way the drum has to spin and that the cable goes in under the drum that puts the drain hole in the right spot. The one that faces forward I'll seal up though.

This also spells out the mod that was mentioned on here about tapping for the earth connection on the end of the motor to the brushes. What idiot came up with that earth idea for the motor? I tapped for M3 and greased it well also to ensure it doesn't corrode.

For a $2000+ winch you would think these mods would be standard and done from the factory. It seems these sorts of features are standard on winches half the price or less

I'm a little unsure about the O ring size, drum bush is 63.5 and O ring is 63.17. The other dimensions fit well in the groove already in the bush, just hope the drum can rotate easily in the o ring.

I'm still stripping and painting things, yet to get to the gears to clean those up. Not rushing, but hoping I can do it right and it will last 20yrs and be reliable in that time.

Anyway, just thought I would share some of the info that I've found in case it helps others

[disco stu]

To add to the above, on one drum bush there is a gap to go in locator lug. That's going to let water past the o ring if the winch is submerged, so will have to seal that up when reinstalling the bush.

Any opinions here on aluminium, whether it's best leaving it uncoated for corrosion resistance? Corrosion has spread under most of the paint and I'm thinking that leaving it bare should allow the oxide layer to protect it, unlike what happens under paint