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 Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch

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Crazy Hube
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Crazy Hube


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PostSubject: Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch   Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch Icon_minitimeMon May 14, 2012 7:55 pm

Anyone who has an XRC winch by Smittybuilt will tell you they are of decent quality, minus a few things

-Hard to free spool
-Solenoids suck
-Slow line speed

What this write up will fix is the first two things, unfortunately the third is something you will have to live with Crying or Very sad

Part 1

The first thing we will address is the free spooling issue, which is a result of the grease. As we know these are made in China, and they chose the cheapest grease, read glue, I have ever seen. This stuff was insanely tacky, but I am assuming the winch will be fine with less tacky grease, I did a pull with mine and it seemed fine after the re-greasing.

To start off:
Gather your supplies:
- At least 2 rolls of good paper towels
-Mineral Spirits
-Good quality grease, only need one tub
-Old toothbrush
-Bucket
-Brake Cleaner

Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch IMG_0698

Dismount your winch from the mounting surface and bring it to a bench to work on it, this is will be a very messy process and is not possible with the winch still on the car

Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch IMG_0682

Next loosen all of the allen bolts holding on the gear cover, these are small so be careful not to lose them
Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch IMG_0685

Here is what you should have now, all the bolts, and the PAPER gasket between the gear cover and mating surface. If you are careful you can reuse this gasket, otherwise you will just use RTV to seal it.

Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch IMG_0688

Now this is what you should see inside the winch
Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch IMG_0687

Grab ahold of the gear assembly and wiggle is out, not very hard to do. The grease holds most of it together. It should all pull out as one unit, minus the thrid planetary gear set. You can then reach in and pull the remaining gear set out.

Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch IMG_0692

Uh...yea

Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch IMG_0689

Forgive me here, because the picture taking slowed down, it gets REALLY messy.

Here are the gears separated and cleaned.

Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch IMG_0699

The best way I found to remove this grease is with mineral spirits.
-Pour mineral spirits in a small bucket
-Put gear in bucket
-Scrub with old tooth brush.

It is a good method and gets them pretty darn clean. I didn't bother with completely disassembling each individual planetary gear set, but if you are really worried about getting all of that crappy grease out that is the best way to do it.

Also very important. When you are cleaning it you will have noticed these two plastic washers. These go between the second and third set of planetary gears, they will remain in place until you start cleaning. The grease holds them on pretty good

Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch IMG_0700

To clean the inside of the winch, I used brake cleaner. It dissolves the grease and with the help of a brush and some paper towels you can get the majority of it removed.

Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch IMG_0701

NOW....repack the gears with grease, very easy to do and then reassemble. The photos of the clean gear set show which way they go in, but if for some reason you get confused this is really good reference.

XRC8 Free-spool Fix - JeepForum.com

Once the gears are greased and back in place put the cover back on with the paper gasket, or RTV. Also make sure to put some grease on the clutch lever, you can see where is should go when you look at the cover, it makes it quite a bit easier to engage and disengage.

Part 2


Next we will be fixing the solenoid. The problem is that the crappy rubber gasket in the solenoid lets water get in, which is not a good thing. Replacing this gasket with RTV will solve any water getting in.

What you will need:
RTV or some type of sealant
Dielectric Grease

Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch IMG_0705

Here is the solenoid with the plastic cover removed.

Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch IMG_0702

Remove the four allen bolts holding it together.

[imghttps://2img.net/h/i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee259/Dous07/IMG_0706.jpg[/img]

Separate the two halves, you will see these 4 springs, they are hold in place, but can fall out pretty easily so keep an eye on them

Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch IMG_0709

Here you can see the seal, it is not very good, also you can review the benefits of nitrile over latex.

Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch IMG_0710

Apply your RTV in the groove of the surface and mate them together. Easy.

Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch IMG_0712

Here you can see where I put some RTV on the outside of the solenoid where the wire enters. I am assuming this is where water is getting in normally, I wanted as much water resistance as possible

Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch IMG_0714

Next I put dielectric grease over all the connections to prevent future corrosion.

Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch IMG_0717

Put it all back together and you are done!


You CAN polish a t.urd

Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch IMG_0718

All buttoned up

Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch IMG_0719

In review

After testing the winch free spools SO much easier, it used to take two people to free spool the thing. Now I can literally grab the thimble with my pinky and free spool it. It is also quieter during operation, but in nature this is a noisy winch. Also by waterproofing the solenoid I won't have to worry about it failing on, like it has to so many other people.
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bigdogdewey2
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PostSubject: Re: Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch   Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch Icon_minitimeMon May 14, 2012 10:14 pm

great write up...Casey how much grease did you use when packing it back in? did you basically cover all the gears or fill the whole thing up...lol
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Crazy Hube
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PostSubject: Re: Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch   Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch Icon_minitimeMon May 14, 2012 10:17 pm

I filled the whole thing up to a point. The thing about grease is it doesn't compress, so there needs to be some room for it to move about... but I wanted it to be well lubricated!
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bigdogdewey2
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PostSubject: Re: Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch   Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch Icon_minitimeMon May 14, 2012 10:22 pm

gotcha...good stuff to know man...thanks again for the write up...
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Crazy Hube
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PostSubject: Re: Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch   Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch Icon_minitimeMon May 14, 2012 10:24 pm

Oh it was my pleasure! You need a winch for that bumper Very Happy
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bigdogdewey2
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PostSubject: Re: Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch   Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch Icon_minitimeTue May 15, 2012 12:14 am

yeah i do...id buy yours but its all brand new to you now...LOL
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David B
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PostSubject: Re: Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch   Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch Icon_minitimeTue May 15, 2012 8:11 am

GREAT WRITE-UP CASEY!!!!
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Southeast Overland
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PostSubject: Re: Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch   Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch Icon_minitimeTue May 15, 2012 10:37 am

Nice write up, good pics, good explanation. I'll be servicing my M8000 soon.
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lrgrnr
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PostSubject: Re: Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch   Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch Icon_minitimeSat Jul 07, 2012 7:39 pm

I tore mine down a few weeks ago, I took it completely apart though. Drum and all. Now the brake doesn't work. Anyone know how to set this spring loaded braking system? I thought I hd it right but the winch has no brake.
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Crazy Hube
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Crazy Hube


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PostSubject: Re: Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch   Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch Icon_minitimeSat Jul 07, 2012 11:29 pm

No clue. Maybe try finding a detailed break down from Smittybuilt to see how it is set up
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PostSubject: Re: Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch   Improving your Smittybuilt XRC Winch Icon_minitime

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