Superwinch Husky modification

[minivin]

As I know some of you have Husky's, thought the following maybe of interest;

As I'm in the process of getting a Husky fitted to my Series, I've been busy cleaning it up and making it look decent from when I first purchased it. Now with a new motor fitted, oils and greases replaced and the drum and red portions all painted I started looking at it since it will be getting assembled soon.

One of the details which I consider to be a design flaw is that there is no means to pressure-grease the nylon bushes either end of the drum. The 525 winch has a benefit here in that one end has it's bearing inside the case to keep it lubed, while the other end could be drilled and tapped to fit a grease nipple, thereby solving issues with this winch.

The main case is some trouble to figure out how to best solve at present, so I'll turn my attention to the support plate at the other end. This plate has only a nylon bush in it, and takes screws for mounting the winch (x2), mounting of the solenoid pack if mounted on the back (x2) and the screws for the fairlead and back strengthening plate (x4), that's it.

Initially I thought about drilling in the back face to tap and fit a grease nipple, however this has two drawbacks in that I may not have enough room between the case and the Series wing to be able to get a grease gun into the nipple, and also although I am mounting the solenoid pack inside of the engine bay, if I ever wish to mount a standard solenoid pack on the outside of this bracket again, I will have to mount the solenoids over the grease nipple thereby negating access to it.

With this in mind I took to looking around the outside of the body of the bracket to find enough material to drill through and pass a lubrication galley to the nylon bush, but alas there is not enough material to do this. I also took time to make a note on how much can be reached with the winch in its mounting plate, namely only the top face and the front sloping face as follows:

I decided to aid with access that I would drill a hole through from the front sloping face, in line with the gap between the nylon bush and the housing. However this had the problem that I would break-out inside the housing between the bush support boss and the outer skin of the bracket.

To solve this I used some 3/16 Copper-Nickel brake pipe which actually measured 4.6mm dia to act as the lubrication galley between the outer skin and the bush support. I initially drilled through at 3mm, then 3.5mm, 4mm, and finally 4.5mm from the outer skin to the inner, and then drilled it 3/16" to give me a couple thousandths of an inch clearance to slide the tub in. I then drilled the outside skin 1/4" deep with a 13/16" drill bit and tapped to a depth of 1/4" 1/4" BSF so that I can fit a 1/4" BSF stainless steel grease nipple once I have procured one.

With the bores now completed, I slide the pipe in until it started to go into the bush support hole, using some Loctite 638 bearing retainer (it can take up gaps up to about 0.004"), I smeared the inside portion of the tub and a little bit on the outermost portion of the pipe, and pushed it in and tapped it in with a hammer and punch until it was 1/4" in of the outer face to clear the grease nipple once fitted.

From Inside:

From Outside:

I'm still thinking about the main case, there are the problems that I must miss the two sprung brake shoes, and once I start looking around there may be not enough meat in the casting to bore all the way through to the inner area as I do not know the thickness of the casing between the winch drum area and the internal worm gear area. However I am still thinking on it

[LR90]

Hi Rob, nice post

Did you consider machining out the housing to take a roller bearing?

[western]

Neat job Rob, I just give my Husky a good squirt of WD40 occasionally around each end of the drum.

[Mark]

Neat job Rob,

Might have to give this a go on my one. Take some pix with the nipple fitted, and give it a test squirt!

Mark

[minivin]

Cheers for the comments I suppose with a little work a ball bearing with in-built seals could be used, however I would then also be tempted to weld in some gussets from the inner bush casting area to the outer skin area to help spread the load after removing material to aid the fitment of a bearing. Now what do I need at the moment to bulk up a stainless steel order so I can get some grease nipples

[white90]

Looks good nicely carried out mod.

[Jon White]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I always assumed that nylon bushings like this were designed to be self lubricating?

Wouldnt grease just mix with grit and form grinding paste and eat the nylon bush?

I thought that the reason the 525's had a grease nipple was casue they actually had a proper bearing in them?

Cheers

Jon

[minivin]

Looks good nicely carried out mod.

cheers

[minivin]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I always assumed that nylon bushings like this were designed to be self lubricating?

Wouldnt grease just mix with grit and form grinding paste and eat the nylon bush?

I thought that the reason the 525's had a grease nipple was casue they actually had a proper bearing in them?

Cheers

Jon

Yes and no really, they still need some form of lubricant as they can pick-up, PTFE is better for self-lubrication, but more expensive.

Unfortunately it's a common thing with lubricants in any location, it can happen with phosphor bronze bushes, brass bushes, oil lubricated et cetera. However having a decent head of grease around the bush will aid in limiting the ingress of a water-born grit, and after a few pumps with a grease gun should assist with pushing it out and replacing it with fresh grease, just got to be of the mindset that after playing in mud that you give it a good clean and re-lube (which reminds me, must do my propshafts after Sunday's fun )

no grease nipples on a 525, just oil in the worm gear enclosure, the free spool casting could have a grease nipple for the bearing inside it, since there are no means of preventing muddy water getting into the bearing (bit daft but never mind), as follows: