As a reminder, here is how I did it...
http://www.wd0m.com/aa6pw.html
Dino - K6RIX
dino@k6rix.com
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [TowerTalk] Speaking of Fulton winches on TX-455 A WARNING
From: "Dan Kovatch" <w8car@buckeye-express.com>
Date: Wed, June 18, 2008 12:37 pm
To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
With all the talk of winches I thought I'd pass along my winch story. I
have
a Tx-455 which uses the Fulton K1550. I had noticed recently while
cranking
it down that it was sometimes hard to start and then very hard to pull.
I'm
a big guy (250) so I can crank it usually with no problem. I finally
looked
closely at it after arriving back from vacation before cranking it back
up.
What I found is scary. The frame of the winch had a slight bow out in
the
lower right section where the racket pawl is attached. When I looked at
the
pawl it was BARELY engaged in the teeth of the ratchet!!!. The bend in
the
frame was allowing the pawl to cant out and away from the ratchet teeth.
Luckily the tilt over fixture also uses the K1550 and I just finished
swapping that one out and all seems fine again. I ordered a new K1550
from
Amazon (not ready to go the K2550 route yet)
On closer inspection the bolt that holds the cable drum in place is
frozen
or bent so the bolt will not come out. Also, the smaller gear that
engages
the larger one on the cable drum seems to be out of line. I am going to
tear
it apart and see what's what but it surely is junk now as the frame is
bent
and other parts may be frozen. The winch is not even 7 years old and
looks
good upon first blush.
Just a warning to others (and I did find a few references in the
archives
about the same problem). I don't know if I bent the frame while cranking
it
down or it happened in some other manner. The tower is not overloaded
and
usually before storms and such it is cranked down.
Check those winches -especially if you notice some strange operation!
Dan W8CAR
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