I've got a Warn 2500 winch that I believe has stripped its gears. What do you think Warn would charge me to repair it? Has anyone else experienced this? I replaced it with a new one because I was taking a trip. I want to fix this one and throw it onto my Polaris.

 

DanW-how old is the winch?Is it a 2000 lb or larger? What makes you think you stripped the gears on it?I have had a few of the Warns apart and their gears are pretty HD.Could be another problem besides stripped gears.

 

it is no real problem to look at the gears. just pop of the end with the motor, but be careful and remember what goes where.

 

I'm assuming its the gears. It is a 2500lb and was new in spring of 2002. The motor runs, but it won't spool the cable. It could be the mechanism that engages/disengages the spool.

 

Here ya go. Buy any parts you need and this will help.

http://www.dirtyhowies.com/warn_wich.htm

 

DanW- this sounds exactly why I had to repair 3 newer Warns awhile back! The part that disengages the spool (freespool lever on end of cap) breaks and even though the motor runs, the spools won'move.This usually happens if after using the winch-you go to use it again and don't power the cable out a foot or so to take the tension off the spool.If you try yo move the plastic lever without doing this-the little plastic part inside the end cap breaks and youre done.I repalced 3 of these parts on my friends winches.Call Warn and in our cases, the winches were fairly new ones and they sent me the required parts free.This little part is not available by itself.It comes in the endcap kit.It also comes with instructions how to put it in.The Part number you need on the Dirty Howies diagram is #36030.You can see the little 3 sided star piece inside the cap in diagram #18-this is the piece that breaks.No big deal-just getting all the gears lined up in the housing correctly.The fella I talked to at Warn said that the freespoooling instructions are in their manual and it says-Power out the cable a few inches or so to release the tension on the drum before trying to flip the free-spool lever.We have done this many many times since and no more broken pieces.Hope this is your problem.Once you get the gears aprt you will see what I meant about them being pretty HD! When you re-assemble the gears, be sure to regrease them pretty good.Good luck. Pete

 

I stripped the gear inside the plastic houseing on my 2500# warn, I called them and they sent me the part for free, along with an explaination that the only thing that would cause that would be to shock the winch, he gave a couple of examples, snapping the slack out of the cable in reverse, or tying the wheeler to the trailer with the winch. My neighbor broke his on the trailer that way, and i've done both. OOOPS live and learn. It was an easy fix. You just gotta remember how you took it apart.

 

Thanks a bunch! I'll call Warn and see if I can get started soon.

I'll let you know how it goes.