I had the unfortunate luck of collecting two huge concrete nails in a rear tire on my SC. The fortunate part was that it went flat at home and was able to pull my best NASCAR impersonation with the air gun and change it out pretty quickly!

Problem came when I retracted the spare tire winch. Because I was taking the flat tire up to the shop for repair, I retracted the winch empty. However, when I went to reinstall the spare, I attempted to lower the winch to no avail. Now the winch will neither raise or lower. The guy at the tire shop says he has seen this before on countless SC's.

Anyone else had this issue? Because this is a sealed mechanism, I assume it is a matter of a rpl by Ford.

 

Just a swag... what's the possibility that without weight on it, the cable simply"expands" inside the winding mechanism, that is, could you

a) make sure it is wound up all the way, and then
b) have someone crawl under the truck and pull on it, simulating the weight of a tire, as you unwind it.

 

I had the same problem on the way to work one morning. I wound it up na d forced it back down. You will need to pull on it to aid it down.

 

Beastrider...I guess I should have qualified those points.

I think that is exactly what has happened. Without any weight on the cable as it is raised, there is too much slack and it gets bound up inside the housing. I have tried numerous times to add weight to the cable, as well as manual pressure, to try to break it free. No luck.

I guess my concern is with the design. If you get a flat and install the spare, your next action is to take the flat in for repair. If the winch needs weight to properly retract, it leaves the owner with a few choices; drive with the cable dangling (dumb), zip tie the cable up and out of the way, or wind it up and start this all over again.