350B winch question

[countrycrawler]

Hey Folks,
I recently bought a 350B w/winch and i can`t seem to get the cable to unroll. I was wondering does this winch have a freespool ? It will roll its self up but i can`t seem to get it to unroll. Does the pto have to be engaged for the winch to unroll, does the dozer have to be in neutral, what am i missing ? I have a 450C w/winch and as long as you pull the lever back on it, it will unroll. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks y`all,
countrycrawler

[jdemaris]

Hey Folks,
I recently bought a 350B w/winch and i can`t seem to get the cable to unroll. I was wondering does this winch have a freespool ? It will roll its self up but i can`t seem to get it to unroll. Does the pto have to be engaged for the winch to unroll, does the dozer have to be in neutral, what am i missing ? I have a 450C w/winch and as long as you pull the lever back on it, it will unroll. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks y`all,
countrycrawler

Need to know what winch you have and what type of control valve. With all 350s with reversers - the reverser has to be in forward or the winch can't do anything since the PTO won't turn. If it's a self-powered winch like most Bs and Cs will have, it uses a little Webster hydraulic pump inside the winch. Freespool is usually the first thing NOT to work. Free-spool needs arond 800 - 1000 PSI of hydraulic pressure to work. The pressure has to override a pair of heavy tension springs. With no or low pressure, the springs keep the brake band pulled tight. Pressure is needed for "winch in" mode and "free spool" mode.
The older winches, not self powered, use a big external manual master cylinder that still works the same way, more-or-less for the free-spool.

[countrycrawler]

Hey jdemaris.
Thanks for the reply. The 350B that i have doesn`t have the reverser on it. If i`m not mistaken the winch thats on the dozer is a model 3315. I`m not really sure what type of control valve the dozer has. I was just wondering, if it will "winch in" shouldn`t it also free spool ? Or is that 2 totally seperate things. The Crawler does have a lever in the floor behind the steering levers to put the pto in gear. Like i was saying before this is totally as different as daylight and dark between the 450C and this 350B. I`m like a lost pup in high weeds. Any help is appreciated. Thanks
countrycrawler

[jdemaris]

Hey jdemaris.
Thanks for the reply. The 350B that i have doesn`t have the reverser on it. If i`m not mistaken the winch thats on the dozer is a model 3315.

3315 and 3325 are both Deere power winches with their own internal hydraulic systems as already described. Free spool is usually the first thing to malfunction. Yes, winch-in also needs hydraulic pressure, but nowhere near as much. There is supposed to be around 800 to 1000 PSI (there is pressure port to stick a gauge in). If pressure gets low, free spool won't work - but the winch-in function will, to a certain degree. Even 100 PSI will make it winch in, although the clutches will slip under a heavy load. There is also a free-spool adjustment, but it is rarely the issue. Your hydraulic slave cylinder is probably not opening up all the way due to low hydraulic pressure. Does it work any better if you rev the engine up to full throttle? The hydraulic pump inside the winch is tiny, and if it even gets a little wear, won't pump enough oil to make free spool work at low engine speeds. Sometimes all it takes it to rev the engine up.
There is also a suction screen on that little pump that tends to get clogged.

[countrycrawler]

Hey jdemaris,
I haven`t had a chance to try the winch again, i think its rained everyday since i started this project. As soon as it stops raining i`m gonna try and rev up the engine to see if that will make the winch release. What would estimate the cost to be to replace or rebuild the pump in the winch ? Also how hard is the pump to get to ? I really need to find a tech manual for the dozer. Thanks

[jdemaris]

Hey jdemaris,
I haven`t had a chance to try the winch again, i think its rained everyday since i started this project. As soon as it stops raining i`m gonna try and rev up the engine to see if that will make the winch release. What would estimate the cost to be to replace or rebuild the pump in the winch ? Also how hard is the pump to get to ? I really need to find a tech manual for the dozer. Thanks

There is no "rebuild" to the pump. The pump is tiny and if it gets any wear, it doesn't put out very much oil at low speeds. It a Webster-Electric pump, same as used in some older Fisher snow-plow setups. It sits at the bottome of the winch and it's not hard to get at. But, assuming you have the spool-valve type control, I doubt pump itself is your problem. More apt to be a clogged intake screen, bad brake slave cylinder, etc. I mention that spool-type valve because later, Deere changed over to a small and extremely expensive rotary valve. We had nothing but problems with these valves and Deere finally discontinued them during the 350 C series, and sold change-over kits to make them work with the old style spool setup again. If you had a winch with the little rotary valve that bolts on to the back of the winch, that's the #1 place to look for problems. But, I assume you've got the very reliable spool valve that's mounted on the crawler somewhere.