Any tips on getting cable to wrap right with a level winder?

[1 Patriot-of-many]

I spent hours pulling quite a bit of the cable off my rear winch and winding it back on, The level winder moves freely, but it still bunches up the cable and I have to manually move the level winder. Any tips on how to get it to wind the way it should? I had the tensioner on when winding. On the bright side the rear winch works as well as the hoist/boom Still working on the front winch, wind control is stuck in wind.

 

[crasheej]

Are you using the cable tensioner as per the 10 TM on page 2-125 rewinding without load?

 

[1 Patriot-of-many]

Yep.

 

[crasheej]

should have worked. That's how I do mine.

 

[TehTDK]

I thought you were supposed to rewind loaded. But i guess that might differ from one vehicle to another.

 

[jwaller]

As long as the level wind moves freely and the tension is set properly then it should wind the cable evenly. Is your cable kinked or twisted or unusually stiff?

 

[1 Patriot-of-many]

I guess I'll have to unwind to the last 3-4 wraps and try again. It wasn't real perfect to begin with when I got the truck. Thanks. I have one kink from what I unwound. I'll grease everything up before I start winding.

 

[1 Patriot-of-many]

I thought you were supposed to rewind loaded. But i guess that might differ from one vehicle to another.

Rear winch has a air operated tensioner.

 

[doghead]

Is it working?

Do you see it move?

 

[1 Patriot-of-many]

Is it working?

Do you see it move?

I can hear air at the back when I flip the switch, but I didn't check visually. Back to the TM's, I don't know what I'm actually looking for. Good call. The little things we just assume. At least some of us do like me.

 

[crasheej]

If it's not moving then there is your problem. On mine when I got it had a bad hose air leak. The hose are the same as used on trailer brakes.

 

[1 Patriot-of-many]

The leak isn't that bad, but yeah you can hear a little air leaking. Will check it out this weekend thoroughly during the daytime and post an update. All in all, it's great having a wrecker finally even with all the stuff that needs fixing! Thank you guys.

 

[crasheej]

Could also be the pancake leaking

 

[74M35A2]

The tensioner may not be working as said. Drag your truck or another truck in neutral while winding it and see if it works. If so, then you know your tensioner is not working right.

 

[zebedee]

Sounds like you should have all the info needed to fix your problem, though there are a couple of other things that potentially could be wrong however extremely unlikely........
There could be a build up of crud/foreign body in the slots that the sliding tensioner wheel moves in - not allowing the correct pressure to get to the cable AND it is feasable though totally improbable that some goon replaced the winch rope with a smaller size.
NB. Remembering the correct way to measure a steel rope is 'across the flats' not across the largest dia :-
.....OO
->OOO<- ..this is wrong.
.....OO

Sorry - Can't work out how to show the correct way!

 

[73m819]

ALSO the kink needs to be Unkinked THEN straighten the cable by some reverse bending in order to get the cable to wrap right.

 

[MadCat2]

The book may tell u to not rewind under a load, but all my time in Maintenance, the only way we could ever get them to wrap perfectly tight was to put the truck on a slight incline and attach it to the concrete pilons by the shop, and use the winch to pull its self up hill slowly and the cable wraps tight on the drum. We would manipulate it w crow bars and several strong privates when necessary. That's how i rewrap mine, i use a tractor to keep tension on it now. May not be by the book but it works well on mine.

 

[73m819]

We just used the tensioner on Swiss's m62 and a 3lb hammer (used at the start to get the first two wraps tight against the drum flange) to REwrap the cable on the rear winch, after the first two wraps, the cable spooled on just fine just using the level wind.

 

[zebedee]

The book may tell u to not rewind under a load, .....

Not sure where this came from, refering to a book quote. Doesn't make sence seeing as a full winch-in for recovery close to the final position of the casualty would be all under tension with exception of the last few feet when "preparing to travel".

So I'd say your time in Maintenance wasn't necessarily doing it against the book!

.... re-read the -10 TM and only reference for using the cable tensioner is for "Rewinding the Winch Without a Load".

Thinking outloud, the dia of the cable tensioner pulleys are smaller than all the other rollers and they work at a localised point, in compression, squeezing the cable, so using them would stress the cable more than when pulling a load, where the cable just rolls with the other pulleys - no squeezing! So perhaps a poorly adjusted cable tensioner (which doesn't work enough) isn't that bad!