Spare wheel winder issue

[Nomad9]

Hi There,
Situation as it unfolded..................fitted new set of rims and tyres to D3, unfortunately on of the rims was damaged, my bargain at this point wasn't such a bargain. Had to fit the spare, tyre shop guy fitted spare put busted rim and tyre in the back and wound up the spare wheel winder, I suspect with his electric power impact wrench.........now the problem.

I have had the rim fixed, fitted the new tyre and came to put the spare back, I had a hells own job getting the wire out, ended up removing the mechanism, putting it in a vice and eventually getting the wire out.

Now I get the wire possibly 7/8 of the way back in and it binds up, I suspect due to the wire getting bound up internally. Is there any special trick to getting the wire back in on the spool so the wire goes in enough to lock the spare in place?

I have unwound and rewound the wire maybe eight times with varying loads on the wire from nothing to the weight of the spare preloading the wire. Any ideas apart from buy a new one............? :confused::confused::confused:

[Fatso]

Probably easier said than done , but I would be taking it back to the tyre guy and giving him the problem .

[Nomad9]

Hi There,
You are more right than you know, the guy was most helpful, he put the tyre on the repaired rim for free, he got the alignemnt spot on and I spent some time thanking him for doing a great job. To rock up 24 hours later and start berating him would be difficult.
I'll have another go tonight, it can't be that hard surely, there has got to be a knack to it, I just have to figure it out without actually taking the mechanisim apart.

The other frustrating thing is I had an winder mechanisim that took of another D3 when I fitted a long range fuel tank, been in the shed for maybe three or four years, couple of months ago I came across it and thought I would never have a need for this again and threw it out..............brilliant.

[jonesy63]

The trick is to keep tension on the cable when it is winding up. If you don't, it will bunch up. I suggest hanging a (20-30kg) weight off it when winding it up in the vice - right from the start.

[101RRS]

The trick is to never force the winch - a power tool would do this.

As suggested put a heavy weight on it from the start - wind it up until it starts to bind and then reverse until it clears itself - often more often than not it will then wind back in OK - if not wind in until it binds then back out a bit etc.

Garry

[PeterOZ]

I had the same thing happen to my D3, BJ dealer used the air socket to wind up the winch and stuffed it. Had to pay for a new one aqs BJ denied all knowldge and hence I no longer use them.

[Nomad9]

Hi Garry & Co,
All fixed, took the mechanism off and inserted a small piece of tubing in the "winding in" slot forcing the wire to the bottom of the slot whilst winding in, got it first go all the way home. Fitted the mechanism back in and wound the wire out with the spare wheel hanging off it. Perfect...............