Ok here goes ... 1998 Durango, you guys all know where the spare is located. The "D" has 233,000 KM's on it. Spare never been used ... never removed .. NEVER ! I am the 4th owner. Ok... so planning a vacation this summer and I figured I might as well take down the sucker to make sure everything is ok ... as far as I could tell at the time... never been REMOVED ! NEVER . So I turn ... follow the instructions and then it happens .. POP .. the little SCREWEY thingee in the truck breaks. So i'm like now what the HELL ? So I look under .. nothing has moved ... not even close .. so I cut the CABLE .. and the tire came out .... but now ... I have a broken thingee in the trunk and a SEVERED cable ... the spare is in the truck now. The question is ... what do I do to get that spare back in there ?

I have a few ideas .. but before I venture off ... was wondering if this had happened to anyone here ?

Thanks - looking forward to your help on this matter !

 

Looks like perhaps the same thing may have happened to my 98. The cable is severed, and there was no spare to speak of when I bought the truck. I bought a used rim and have a tire mounted on it now, but it's in the cab, and the 3rd seat is folded down to accommodate the tire. I want to put a sub in the back of my truck, but I also don't want to drive any long distance without a spare. Not sure if the mechanism is broken or not...

 

looks like you can buy them on ebay if you dont mind, just replace the winch, this is for a dodge, not sure if it would fit your truck, but looks like it would fit mine, and on mine the entire winch assembly just unbolts from the frame, and if you look on napa there are other options there too, just look around there are plenty of fixes for this problem

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/96-98...spagenameZWD1V