john deere winch problems

[aksawyer]

Was wondering if anyone could enligthen me on the older small J.D. winches.Ours on the 440-A tends to break free on the harder pulls,I have adjusted back and forth on the band adjustment and have it as tight as I can go and still free-spoll at all.Some oil is showing up on that side,keep a obsorbant pad folded up in the band side to help it stay dryer.Not much is there but there is some.Maybe it is new band time.Does anyone know if I could scuff drum surface to take shined up wear off,or just replace band and try to dry up band side some more.Our winch on the 550-B dozer has exact problem.Both machines were sitting for long time before we bougth them.Aksawyer. thanxs alot

[snowstorm]

Was wondering if anyone could enligthen me on the older small J.D. winches.Ours on the 440-A tends to break free on the harder pulls,I have adjusted back and forth on the band adjustment and have it as tight as I can go and still free-spoll at all.Some oil is showing up on that side,keep a obsorbant pad folded up in the band side to help it stay dryer.Not much is there but there is some.Maybe it is new band time.Does anyone know if I could scuff drum surface to take shined up wear off,or just replace band and try to dry up band side some more.Our winch on the 550-B dozer has exact problem.Both machines were sitting for long time before we bougth them.Aksawyer. thanxs alot

shouldnt be any oil there...........could v packing on clutch packs or seal on cover the relese cyl. for brake band or oil line. springs...one broke?? dose it pull out easy? if it dosent look at clutch discs if you take it a part....any oil on brake band toss it.....cleannnn the drum when adjusting brake band before putting the big cover on....just dont.....wind the winch in.....or oil everywere ....freespool ....ok..........find a jd tech manual

[mad murdock]

JD 3310 or JD 3315 winch are similar.  I borrowed a JD 350 cat with the 3315 winch on it, it started out mrginally ok, then got weaker and weaker over about 10 truckloads of skidding.   Had the disks replaced, and it pulled harder than ever, like nw.  cost about 650.00 for a shop to do the work, including the parts to fix it.  Could be a similar problem?  Get a manual, that will be your best help! 

[treefarmer87]

sometimes my gearmatic on my C5 pull out on the really large trees or drags. i usually free spool all the main line and pull it back in a few times to rough the bands up

[plasticweld]

I had a 440A that had similiar problems. The oil was seeping through the back of the piston that was inside, This was 30 years ago so bear with my bad discription.
there was a large pistion that  worked back in forth in the winch, about 6 inches in dia. I had a fine hair line crack so that when the winch operated it seeped oil. it was made out of some sort of cast material and I had it brased and it worked for awhile before I finally had it replaced with a new one.

I also had problems with the winch holding, tight enough to hold the load but impossible to pull out. There are a couple of solutions that will help. One is getting the bolt in perfectly straight when you attach the brake band, be very careful to get it on staight not twisted. if it is cocked a little bit it will give you too much drag when the winch is released so you cant tighten it like you should. If I remember correctly the little slave cylinder that works the brak had two bolts in it, it is possible to cock the slave cyclinder when installing causing this problem, I used a small bar to hold it in place to keep it square and then tightened

The other think that works really well in getting the brake to hold is to " and your wife will hate me for this"  cook it in the oven to burn off all of the oil that has  been absorbed into the lining. It is the only way I found to get rid of it, you can try every cleaner under the sun but it will never get the oil out. I used to bake mine a couple of times a year and it did the trick. I found the key to getting the winch to work and keeping my wife happy was to find out when she was going to be gone for a few hours so I could sneak the winch band into the kitchen oven ...Bob

[Bobus2003]

My 440 does the same thing, I have some leaking seals internally.. Does it squeal when you make a hard pull and the lines pulling out? Mine does and its cause the brakes slipping on the drum

[treefarmer87]

my gearmatic does the same exact thing  plasticweld, and sometimes when you free spool it wont come out.

[shawnsghost]

I just went through the same thing with my '73 440a. I just replaced all the seals on the left quill side for $70 from deere and replaced the brake band. i got the band new from a guy on ebay for $150 shipped. they cost about $250 from deere. its been my experance that any oil in the band area is going to cause some slip. you could try to burnish the band and see if that helps. the manual says chain your cable to a large tree with the drum in the locked position and drive away. after 15 ft or so your band should be at 100% if this doesnt help then you need a new band.

[arojay]

I have had trouble with seals on the hydraulic side and from the case itself.  Either way you don't want any oil on the drum, band or anywhere else in that end of the housing.  My skidder is a more recent model and the oil ported through the quill is replaced with a hose inside the case. My 350 dozer has the older style and I had lots of problems with the seals and whatnot in that 'distributor' set up between the quill and clutch orfice.  I had a small and persistent leak with the skidder winch that turned out to be a $7 seal on the output shaft from the gearcase.  The drum and all has to come off for that but if you're in there anyway it is worth doing.  The seal on mine was hardened right up.  The drum was quite impregnated with oil and I cleaned it with varsol then Brakleen then cooked it on top of the woodstove in the shop for a while and it has been good ever since.  As I recall the clutch discs weren't bad and just Brakleen did the job.  I never had much luck with cleaning the bands for more than temporary use while waiting for new ones.  Brake adjustment is fairly critical.  Where do you get parts AK?   

[aksawyer]

So far have not bought any parts.But have bought some parts for our 550-B dozer,get them from local John Deere dealer(Airport Equipment,Craig Taylor Equipment).They are both good at getting it in a day  or two.Aksawyer

[Maineiac]

I had problems just like you described, JD made a update kit for the winch to make the brake band a little more adjustable. The band does have to be free of oil to work properly, baking in the oven did not work for me. Make sure the winch drum is not bendt or cracked were the clutch assenbly mounts to it. Your bolts are tight between the clutch assembly and the winch cable drum. Sometimes when the bolts loosen up or break the winch brake band will get stretched more on one side than the other and you will not get full tension across the brake drum face, you will need to replace the winch brake band to fix the slipping problem. I found a way to repair the band when the matrial gets glazed and will not hold a load. I clen the winch brake band with automotive brake cleaner untill I see no discoloration of the brake dripping off the brake band, blow it dry with a air hose, use a simple vibrating ingraver and make grooves in the brake band material going across ths band from inside to outside. You don't need to do all of the surface area, just goove lines across the band materail. I would get one more year of use from my winch brake band when I did this to my brake band surface. A far as adjustment I have seen some guys put wedges under the brake band so when you released for free spoil that the play around the brake drum was evenly distrbuted, I drilled some holes on the outside of my winch casing and threaded some bolts through to contact the brake band and push the play around the brake drumm evenly, don't use to long of a bolt or the winch cable could grab it and break the winch caseing. Some guys welded nuts on the inside of the winch just below the brake band and just threaded a bolt to contact the band and move the play to were they wanted it. Well good luck.

[logloper]

I had same trouble on a 540. Best place I found for winch parts was Schaeffer Enterprises, you can find them on line. About once a month we would pull the dry side cover and clean everything good. We pulled all the clutch disks and spacers, and cleaned them with ether. Sprayed entire dry side out real good and let dry. Not the best, but let us keep pulling logs until we could afford a complete rebuild.

[Maineiac]

Better off to use Brakeclean, ether has a upper cylinder lubercant in it .

[franksr45]

i had a similar problem and replaced the springs. worked like new

[Dale1948]

Take the side off your winch, put winch in free spool and work baking soda in between your drum and band with a hack saw blade and your good to go. Will hold for weeks.

[overtime]

Baby powder works good too

[burchfiel.gh]

Thanks I just tried baking soda on my brake band and it really made a big difference.