In preparation for a road trip, I chose to change out my old spare (which was beginning to show signs of dry rot) with a newer tire. After a half-hour struggle to free the spare tire lock, which had not been lubed in almost two years, I was able to lower the spare to the ground and have it serviced.

After a successful trip to my tire guy, I brought the spare tire home for re-installation. After I had removed the spare earlier, I had retracted the tire retainer and winch cable to the up position so that they would not be banging around on the ground during my errands. Well, when I went to lower the spare tire retainer and cable lift so I could re-install the spare tire, I could not get the winch to lower. The lug on the handle was engaged but I could feel there was some resistance. I pulled on the retainer and cable and was able to make it come down a bit but it would not free up completely and come down.

I began working the handle alternating both ways and it seems that the cable began to free up, coming down about six inches. A small shredded piece of white nylon/plastic worked its way out of the cable hole--I pulled it out and promptly lost the piece. After a short time of working the handle in this fashion I felt the handle give way real easy. It was obvious that the lug for the winch broke inside; the handle lug tip was okay. Now I have a broken spare tire winch.

Has anybody changed out one these spare tire winches? I thought of going to the bone yard for a replacement, but it has been suggested that I was setting myself up for the same thing to happen again and that I should buy a new spare tire winch. Sounds good.

Does anybody have a part number for this piece? And what is the part really called? I have lead for someone called the F150PartsGuy.com. Does anybody on the board have any experience with the F150partsguy? Any help appreciated. Thanks.

TonyM.

 

Well the only help I can offer is once I saw a OBS F-150 with the bed removed and could see the winch, so I'm assuming you would have to remove the bed to gain access to it. But it dosent look hard to replace.

 

you dont have to remove the bed. i had the cable either break or was cut on my 98 and just got a new tire and winch from the local junkyard. its extremely simple to swap them out.

 

Thanks all who replied.

Yep,
I got under there and got a good look with some light and in a better mood. There is more than enough room to get the winch out of there--Removing the bed is definitely not necessary. I was able to remove the tube/lug guide from the winch box without damaging it. Should not take much time to remove the two bolts holding the winch on.

I think the the cable unraveled partially off of the reel in the winch box when the lug wrench was being turned for lowering the cable and retainer. Had some weight been on the cable when I began to lower it, I might have averted the foul up. Live and learn.

TonyM.

 

I did it the easy way - took it to the dealer and paid them $206 parts and labor.

The replacement winches no longer use the key that goes on the end of the crank handle - the tip now directly engages the winch.

 

Was told that this repair was so simple that it could be performed by a 10-year-old child. Since no 10-year-old child was available, I had to do the job myself. No removal of the bed needed. The whole removal/replacement operation took about 20 minutes. When you lower the cable without a spare, I would recommend hanging a weight on the spare tire cable so that there is constant tension on it; this will prevent the cable from fouling inside the hoist box. That is how my cable mechanism failed.

TonyM.

 

here's what it looks like from the top side

 

I suppose I'm going to run into this..., spare has never been dropped in it's 10 years of life , bet there's 10yrs of crap up on top of it too.

Better make that the next stop underneath the beast....were's my WD-40?

snow

 

My replacement spare tire hoist has failed.

Apparently the tire and cable came down on their own (?) and the tire caught on the pavement and snapped the tire holding bracket off of the end of the cable as I was backing out of my driveway onto the street. I was backing down my driveway and the tire made contact with the pavement when the truck at the lowest point where the driveway apron and the street come together.

Not sure how this tire could come down on its own. I thought that maybe someone had tried to hoist it down while the truck was sitting in my driveway, but my neighbors were there shoveling and they saw nothing. They had hollered to me when they saw that the tire was hanging down. Too late for me to save it. The truck was in a secure lot (the parking lot for our Fire and Police Dept) prior to me coming home and parking. So I don't know about that aspect for sure.

I do remember that when I was 4x4 near Moab, Utah, in April I heard a clunking noise from the rear. I investigated and discovered the spare was loose somewhat and movable. I pushed the spare and it made a noise as it contacted the frame. I know that I had snugged up that spare against the stops when I checked the spare before my trip and I was surprised that it had moved. I had forgotten about that episode until I got to doing some thinking about this and how it could have happened.

Well, I am looking for a spare tire hoist box for a 2001 Ford F-150.

Has this happened to anybody else? Has your spare worked its way down like this?



Other than that, my F-150 is performing great.

TonyM.


I just took a detailed look at this hoist/cable/bracket and discovered that the cable snapped off clean at the bracket at the end of the cable; it doesn't appear that the cable was pulled/forced down by the tire or snapped off because the tire hit the ground. The **** at the tip of the cable apparently failed while the cable/bracket were in the retracted position. The break in the cable is clean and the hoist (unbelievably) still operates normaly. Maybe cable snapped off because of the extreme cold here in the midwest? The cable end at the failure appears to be good metal, shining silver where the failure occurred but weathered on the outer surface. When I was backing on the street, I heard the spare tire scraping the ground, but it was my truck pushing the spare tire across the pavement (rear end low because of the pitch of the driveway apron), and the cable had failed before the tire even touched the ground. I pulled forward to get out of traffic and saw the spare tire laying in the street. I just thank my lucky stars that I was not going 65 MPH on I-80 when the failure occurred.

Still need a new hoist. TonyM.

 

I had a 90 ranger I think 10 years of never useing it it rusted out it was like 6am and the thing failed. At 45mph the spare tire dropd prob the funniest thing I have had happen. Well maybe not.

 

Yeah my spare tire winch cable broke as well. my friend has a big driveway going up to this house well i got about 3 feet away from where i was parking and my tire fell. I never heard it or noticed but my friend did when he got home. What a POS

 

The lock just snaps onto the winch, if you stoll have yours you can put it on the new one.

I bought my truck used and didn't get the key and had to go to the dealer to have the spare dropped. They wanted like 35 bucks for a new key and had to order it. Went home and removed the tube (with the spare not up) and popped the lock off, now the regular handle works just fine.

 

The failure reported by the OP is common. The cable tangles when it is wound with no weight on it and won't come down. My spare lives in the garage because of this. I look for a winch every time I go to the scrapyard but I haven't found one yet.

I took my winch apart and the plastic parts were broken with no way to repair them.

I wish there was a reliability improvement available. A lot of vehicles use a winch similar to our trucks but I don't think this failure is common among other models.

 

I spent a few hours yesterday with mine. Merry Christmas!

I ended up getting the spare down about 6" and then had to use my bolt cutters to get it the rest of the way down. Now I just need to find a good unit to replace it.

 

My cable just frayed and locked up lowering the tire down to get more room installing the rear shocks for my lift. I said F**k it and ordered a new unit through www.partsguyed.com. All the dealers around here wanted at least $105 + tax for it. I got a new unit from him around $87 shipped