M8000 Winch, stiff clutch lever

Hey guys, I have a M8000 winch which has a very stiff clutch lever. Just wondering if anyone has had this issue before and what to do. Im thinking of just taking it apart and giving it a good grease but not sure what way to go about it?

 

Mine's like that sometimes. But it's a lot harder when I'm too lazy to put some gloves on. It makes a world of a different with gloves

 

Beside the lever is a socket head screw - remove it, lift the lever out, inspect the o-ring, and clean any corrosion from the bore and lever. Apply some grease to the oring and bore, and reassemble being sure to line up the stub on the lever with the groove in the sliding clutch. That should do it, in a matter of minutes. Of course, if the winch hasn't been disassembled, cleaned and re-greased, it might be the perfect time to do it all at once, but thats a much bigger project.

 

I had gloves on the problem is I have the winch on the ARB bumper so it's in a pretty tight area to begin with, I would like to be able to turn it with just one finger. My dad's is brand new and his is smooth and even with mine outside the bumper it's impossible to turn

 

Thanks for the info I will give that a try first

 

good info thanks!

good luck OP. report back with how it goes. maybe I'll get off my lazy ass and do the same lol

 

Just did what you said, the lever moves freely I took the lever off and put come clean flo winch grease inside and put the bolt back in. Turns pretty freely now! You wanna be careful not to over torque the bolt holding the handle in place to whoever may use this thread in the future, I put some lock tight on it and snugged it up but didn't over tighten as it might crack the housing

 

I'll have to give this a try. Mine has been tight since day 1 and I just assumed that's how WARNs were built.