Braden Winch spool selector

[slk]

How easy should it be to engage and disengage the selector on a braden winch. This is the one on the winch it's self that you can do freewheel spooling or lock it in for power.

Mine seams to be hard to go from lock or freespooling.

Is there a correct way to move this lever??

Steve

 

[rosco]

It will be impossible to move it, if there is a load on the drum, or line. That is the lever that engages the dog clutch. The jaws have to be aligned (no load), to be engaged or disengaged. In that situation, the lever should just swing back and forth. The button/knob, of course, has to be pulled from the detent holes.

 

[slk]

I can pull up on it and it does move, but it is hard to get it to go all the way over to pop into the other hole. It goes with in 1/2 inch of hole. After the winch drum moves some it will then go all the way over.

 

[Floridianson]

Are you trying to engage it when thew pto or shaft is stoped. I helps that soldier B engages it after you let out the clutch and starts the shaft turning.

 

[slk]

Yes I am trying to disengage it when nothing is running. I just thought that would work so you could free spool cable out to where you might need it. It is in the engage mode now and I was just trying to disengage it. Kind of a dangerous situation by your self. You need to be able to disengage it quick if you are on the outside of the vehical.

Steve

 

[Oldfart]

Steve, the Braden LU4 winch usually is stiff on the in and out lever for the winch drum. If you have the original aluminum handle, treat it with care. Years ago I bought a pile of LU 4's surplussed out of Texarkana Depot. I got enough parts to build 10 winches, but the limiting factor was the winch drum shift handle and worm gear bearing retainers. I can still find off and on parts, but the handle is very scarce. ~~ The drum clutch mechanism is moved with a fork that is attached to the shaft that is attached to the handle. The clutch has a couple of angular bumps on two opposite sides that fit into a ring on the end of the drum with angular pockets to accept the angular bumps. ~~ How I engage or disengage my drum clutch is by putting my hand on the drum and rotating it back and forth, while carefully moving the clutch handle. The clutch bumps have to center in the pocket in order to disengage. If there is any load either in or out, the angular bumps will seat in the pockets and pull the clutch into the drum. ~ Most of these winches have been forced around to the point the clutch fork attachment to the shifter shaft is worn and there is some slop in handle movement. ~~ The stock M37 PTO will power in and out and I usually just leave my winch drum engaged unless I am alone. I have seen some civilian refits of LU 4's on M37's and I was surprised to find there were PTO's that only went one way with what amounted to an in and out shifter. With these PTO's you would need to spool out by hand.

 

[slk]

That makes sense now. I did take all of my cable out the other day and respool it. In my manual it shows the cable coming from the bottom of the winch and not spooling over the top. When you throw the lever inside forward it is supose to take in cable. I do not know if you have the same power if it were done the opposit way or not.

Hope this is right.......

 

[Oldfart]

Steve,
The power is the same wound over the top or over the bottom. Unless you are letting your M37 down a steep hill, the larger loads are when you are winding the cable in. The difference in top and bottom wind would be which worm gear bearing cap was getting most of the load. There is an Allen set screw tha holds the cable in the drum and you can change which way the cable will wind on the drum. The set screw is just to keep the cable in place so you can start the wind. If you were letting your M37 back down that steep hill, the cable would pull out of the set screw starting hole when you got to the end. ~ Typically, the cable winds in on the bottom of the winch drum. This tends to lift the front end of the truck and help the tires out of the hole you have gotten your self in. Back in 1968 when I got a winch for my M37, I was the heaviest 4x4 wandering around in the Forest. If I got stuck, mere jeeps, broncos and Toyota's could not pull or winch me out. I wound up being the rescue 4x4 and I was winching others out. That and the fact I had seen several M37's with winch bumpers bent back into tires, caused me to use a solid bumper and to wind over the top. This causes my front end to pull down and load my tires better so I don't winch myself to the other vehicle, but they come to me.

 

[m376x6]

The gearing in the stock US M37 PTO is different from Power In to Power Out. The direction of pull should be that when the PTO handle is forward you are taking in cable to move the truck closer toward what you have connected to the end of the cable or pulling what you are connected to closer. There are a lot of civilian PTO's still around that are for both single direction applications and also hydraulic pump applications. I am considering buying an NP435 PTO to compare it to NP420 PTO's as I believe the drive gear and location are almost identical between the two transmissions. The early style and late style transmissions are identical as far as PTO applications in US models. The bolt pattern for the housing is the same from early to late M37 and NP435. The In/Out selector lever do have some minor restriction of movement to get the winch clutch engaged. The dog clutch tabs can have wear that makes it almost impossible to disengage when the winch is under load. These dog clutches will only allow the winch drum to engage on the internal drive shaft twice every rotation. You have two options to get the clutch to align so ithat the selector lever can properly engage, that is to either have the PTO engaged and catch it as it comes around or rotate either drum or PTO input shaft on the winch by hand until it lines up. If you have it aligned and it will go in and out completely but still is hard to move the selector lever the shaft is bound up in the housing and should be removed and cleaned both on the shaft and the housing hole. Dis-similar metals such as aluminum (housing) and steel(shaft) will create corrosion through electrolysis and start siezing normally. The input worm gear set up is engaged at all times. If you continue to force the handle to engage and disengage the winch clutch the handle will eventually break. These handles are getting scarce.