Thread: Spare tyre ratchet has gone faulty

Originally Posted by rmp

The owner's manual is available online, see the FAQ at the top of this page for a link.

we own a d3 and still havent read it

Well, with modern cars, I highly, highly recommend everyone reads the manual. It is not possible to work everything out by osmosis or guesswork and you could be doing something wrong or missing out on a nice feature.

For example, everyone who has jacked up on the compressor....had they consulted the manual it would have been clear where to jack and how.

Originally Posted by rmp

Hmmm, rivets....maybe there's a reason for that....could be as soon as they're drilled out the thing explodes in a zillion sprung-loaded pieces. OTOH if it's stuffed what's to lose...

After claiming a few under warranty for this same problem, I pulled one apart to see what goes on inside.

The problem is that the cable sits in a spiral groove rather than just winding around a plain drum. If there's no weight on the cable, it doesn't take much to make it jump out of this groove & then jam up inside.

The other problem is that there is no 'stop' when the cable is wound all the way out. Therefore, once it extends all the way out, it starts winding back in again but in the opposite way to it's design. The result again is a jammed cable.


Nothing is spring loaded & once apart it's easy to fix.

Thanks Scouse, so it seems drilling the rivets out, replacing them with bolts and fixing the internals would be a reasonable fix then.

I think I'll add this to the FAQ.

Originally Posted by rmp

Thanks Scouse, so it seems drilling the rivets out, replacing them with bolts and fixing the internals would be a reasonable fix then.

I assume bolts would be OK but I haven't refitted one like this so I don't know if there would be clearance issues.

Originally Posted by Scouse

I assume bolts would be OK but I haven't refitted one like this so I don't know if there would be clearance issues.

Guessing here... that'd only be what 2-3mm extra compared to a rivet, and it's not a load-bearing bolt (that attaches to the car) so the bolt could be quite small?

Problem is of course no warranty chance if you turn up with one in pieces saying it's broken so if you take it apart you must repair it ;-)

Anyway added into the FAQ credit Scouse.

I didn't keep the winch that I stripped down so I might pull another one apart, take some photos of the internals & reassemble it with bolts.

Then, next time there's one in the workshop for a replacement winch, I'll get one of the techs to trial fit the repaired one.

That's be pretty cool if you did. If someone read your words in the FAQ and avoided the problem out in the middle of the outback, or felt confident drilling the rivets out that'd be excellent and could get them going again.

Anyone who has a LR tank fitted should have a spare winch and can try it. I didn't keep mine ;-(