"Who needs to see a speedometer anyways!"
Exactly! I can tell by vibrations and rattles how fast the 40's going. (Tail lights, though, that's a different story. I'm surprised no one honked at me.)
I get some looks, too, mostly from very old blue haired ladies who give me what I call the 'butt look' face if they drive past me when I am parked for a stop sign or light. Always makes me want to look at them grab my junk and stick out my tongue, but that is only cause I have a bad attitude....and little do they know that I am probably only a few years younger than they are....
if you get what i mean 
.... and i think my speedo might be weird cause sitting still it says 7 mph but it seems to be working (thouhg its 5mph or so off cause the tires)
I got the shop heater fired up last night and felt ambitious enough to have a look-see. I think the motor is salvable! Manufacturing methods usually circumvent making any repairs, but not this time.
Based on Rob and Sean's observations, I think the initial problem was that the rotor was corroded to the field magnets. With that problem solved, I think there were a couple mistakes made during reassembly. Nothing to feel bad about, just another tuition payment in the school of hard knocks. I think we got off pretty cheap.
First thing I did was hook the control box to a motor that is know to be good. The controller works!
When Rob brought the winch over, we tried the jumper test. When I took the armature wire off the motor, I noticed the stud turning. My concerns were realized when I got the motor open. I'll have to re-solder the brushes to the stud.
Since I have the luxury of time, I'll do a thorough cleanup before reassembling the motor. After the motor is proven, I'll take a look at the rest of the assembly. When I was taking the motor off, I noticed some roller bearings loitering around in the grease at the end of the spool. I think they belong somewhere else, I'll see that they get home.
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The Lost Boys motto: We don't know where we're going, but we'll be there for awhile. :)
Wow, that's good news, Mike.
If memory serves, those three roller bearings were standing straight up in the grease when I pulled the cap off and were evenly spaced up against the outer wall. I was wondering if maybe there were some kind of spacers. I couldn't figure out where else they might go or what else they might be. (Big surprise, huh?)
I feel like my soldering skills have been put to the test. I feel like I passed.
I tend to be anal about solder joints: Do it right, or you'll be doing it over.
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The Lost Boys motto: We don't know where we're going, but we'll be there for awhile. :)
A quick update before I tear into the next "big" project.
Brushes re-soldered to the armature stud.
Case disassembled and start of clean-up. Steel parts will be phosphatised and painted.
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The Lost Boys motto: We don't know where we're going, but we'll be there for awhile. :)
The brush holder is too delicate for scraping or wire brushing. My choice for removing this rust involves mad science: Electrolysis!
I'll have more on that subject later...
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The Lost Boys motto: We don't know where we're going, but we'll be there for awhile. :)
Rob, so this is the winch that you got from Road Armor or that Nick got and sent you?
If it is, seems awfully rusted out for such a short period of time, I am wondering if RA didn't send one that was used.
Looking good, Mike.
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The Lost Boys motto: We don't know where we're going, but we'll be there for awhile. :)
Thanks for all of your expertise, Mike! That is looking good. This will probably get me started on the R&R of my two Warns. I have had them for 6-7 years and need to swap the front to the rear, giving me 9000k where I use it the most, and due some basic regreasing and cleaning.
Jock, Nick sent me that winch when RA failed to send a winch with the bumper. He bought it new.
Mike, is there a good way to seal those stud holes? Slicone? O rings?
Thanks! 
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The Lost Boys motto: We don't know where we're going, but we'll be there for awhile. :)
Fun with electrolysis:
I wanted to take my time with this post because it demonstrates a restoration method that can be used when other methods are too harsh. As I mentioned, the rusty, crusty, brush holder to Rob’s winch was too delicate for mechanical rust removal. Scrapers and wire wheels were just too aggressive, and likely to damage the assembly.
A few years ago, I read about and tried electrolytic rust removal. It was not perfect, but very effective on delicate work. The article I read used “Household Lye” as the key ingredient to the electrolytic solution. Other articles recommend “washing soda”, which is inherently safer. I still have some crystal drain cleaner left, so that is what I used to make my electrolytic solution.
Picture 1: Light gauge steel parts with fiberglass insulators. I’d really hate to screw this up!
Picture 2: If there are bubbles coming off the work piece, you’ve done something right!
Picture 3: After a few hours in the process, I pulled the piece and noticed I had neglected to wire the insulated parts. After GENTLY removing the brush springs, I wired the insulated parts into the circuit.
Picture 4: I also revised the placement of the anodes. Keep in mind that you need to maintain a direct line between the part and the anode. This should clean up some of the areas that are perpendicular to the base plate.
Picture 5: After a few more hours, the insulated parts looked good enough (notice the dark tint). I used a wire brush with brass bristles to clean off the remaining residue.
Picture 6: The solution and sludgy residue are safe enough to dump down the toilet.
Picture 7: After rinsing and wire brushing, I used a phosphoric based metal prep to convert the remaining oxidation. At this point, you can see how the rust has etched the base metal. Removing that rust left the pitting you see in the picture. The part has since been painted.
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The Lost Boys motto: We don't know where we're going, but we'll be there for awhile. :)
More trouble in paradise, sorta.
While test fitting parts, I noticed one of the insulating washers on the field coils was damaged. After careful examination, I'm of the opinion that this was done by the factory assembler. My reason for even posting this is to illustrate how easy it is to over tighten these studs and cause damage you can't see.
In a nutshell, the stud was tightened enough to cut the insulating washer and suck the stud through the hole in the case.
I searched my collection of junk, I searched my local hardware store. I could not find a suitable replacement for the damaged part.
Plan B is to install a brass washer behind the damaged insulator. As the nut is tightened down, the brass washer will stop the stud from pulling through the case.
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The Lost Boys motto: We don't know where we're going, but we'll be there for awhile. :)
Just out of curiosity, since I had done some reading into how you cleaned this off awhile ago, I have a couple of questions:
Why crystal drain cleaner?
Wouldn't just soaking the parts in a phosphoric acid solution like muriatic acid have done the same thing? Or would that have damaged the parts more? I use muriatic acid to clean off quite a few rusted parts and to get rust off of tools, and it works, but also posing other problems that need to be addressed when you do.
Nice to see the set up you used, BTW, since I never tried this.
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