This afternoon I made and fitted the roller / spool thingy that the lifting webbing runs on at the end of the outer arm.
I cheated actually as when looking for suitable round stock I found something I'd chopped off some mechanism some time in the past that already had a spool shape in it! I just had to turn it to length and sleeve it down to 10 mm !
Bits needed chopping off the box section to mount the spool and then it was just a case of drilling the remaining vertical cheeks and putting a bolt in (yet to find one of proper length.
Then re-assembling the winch onto the arm and fitting the webbing it was ready to test. Finding a 56 lb weight I hooked it on and wound it up and down about 2 foot.
Cranking the handle there was an alarming graunching noise in a couple of places, and examining the gear on the handle shaft there is already visible wear and it looks horribly as though it's made from aluminium alloy - surely not

OK gears have to wear together in but heck this is lightly loaded and has only turned a few dozen turns - it can't be right

56 lbs is about 25 kg and this winch is rated at 170 kgs
