BobJ

So handy for juice brakes. Put a solenoid unit on my pickup and great for steep hill starts, off road use etc (and burnouts.) I doubt usage you describe caused their demise. More like misuse use as parking brake temptation.

Will do thanks. Appreciate offer. Seeing massive wear and no maintenance/hack repairs starting to give me that nagging feeling. Mostly just time spent on it up till now. Should probably re evaluate after sorting linkage.

That definitely helped, thanks for checking. No idea who, why, or what bent it like=one more piece of the puzzle revealed. Driver side linkage is a real mess. Thought I would start on easy side first haha. Thanks again for going to the trouble.

Can anyone tell me if Holmes 480 #56 control rod neutralizer on passenger side is supposed to be straight? Driver side is straight and illustration says they are supposed to be the same=straight, but would like to confirm just in case. It functioned, but if not correct I will fix it. Was going to take slop out of controls and everything associated has been hacked by a real pro. If rod is supposed to be straight I guess something violent happened to "S" bend it. Which could explain ultra sloppy shifter shaft going into case. Uh oh. Sorry about photobucket.

Oh okay, no problem.

That sounds pretty interesting. Do you have any pics of it?

Man C60 4x4=drool drool haha. What part of country are you in? Another excellent resource. Thanks.

Thanks, wouldn't be surprised if it was cheaper to buy yours in long run. This one seems to have had a lifetime of terrible hack repairs before I got it. That it still functions at all is testament to how tough they are. Would really like to put tow body on diesel 1 ton 4x4, but tow truck insurance is off the scale in these parts. Deck truck insurance much cheaper. Found that out after I bought it haha. Just a yard toy/project I have been throwing money and time at until I can figure out what to do with it. Lately it's been handy for taking down dead trees and clearing windfalls off fences etc. Propane power not very handy when it never leaves the yard.

Thanks, ordered one of his off ebay about an hour ago. Last time I tried they were only available from his site and couldn't take my card.

The large and small gears were on the wrong sides. Illustration above made it clear as soon as front cover came off. Really need to get a manual. Thanks jeff myer and Kjband13oc.

Thanks. that does look like my gearbox. I didn't have it far enough apart to mess with shift fork, but the shaft between linkage and shift fork on right side has an extreme amount of play.(up/down and in/out) Enough to allow one rain storm to fill up gearbox with water then freeze, pushing input shaft seal out. (Lucky it didn't crack case) But everything functioned properly after that. No clunks or noises first time I put in pto after working on it. Don't believe I got the large and small worm gears (71 and 74) mixed up. Assembled large gear to right side as per illustration (unless it's a mirror image) Not sure improper assembly is even possible? That said I didn't get at rear worm gears and I have one direction on each winch drum=Hmmmm. Will check bad shift fork shaft operation, then going to pull front cover back off and have one more look. While apart I will tie off controls and move input shaft by hand to see what's going on. If you look at diagram it's not that complex changing two large bearings going into front cover and the two input shaft bearings, but has outsmarted me so far... haha.

Thanks. I'm thinking it must be something simple as well. I didn't get that deep into it and bearings were new old stock identical replacements. Feel kind of guilty taking up their time, will disassemble and have another look before contacting them.

Thanks. Appreciate input. Going to make a list of places dealing in Holmes and blue steel currently at top of it. If it wasn't raining for next two weeks I would pull it apart. Just need to think about how and why it's doing what it's doing maybe... Thanks again.

Holmes 480 winch having an issue after I worked on it. Now right winch only goes up, left winch only goes down when respective winch levers engaged forward or to the rear. Lever controls themselves work and engage properly. Controls neutrals still work properly. Worked great before I "fixed" it haha. I replaced the two large drive gear bearings in front cover, and the two input shaft bearings. Also removed worm brake linings and rear cover(s) to repair an oil leak. Any thoughts? Thinking something to do with worm gear action, but not much info out there. Thanks.