Got a strange problem. Every year in October, I rotate my tires, check brakes, air pressures, AND I always drop the spare to lubricate the winch and check the spare tire's air pressure.

Well, not today. When I dropped the spare, the cable drops down properly, right to the ground, but the plastic piece supporting the spare is stuck. The tire drops down about an inch and a half, and will not budge.

I have tried prying it with a 2x4 and a pry bar, but it won't budge.

I know that the plastic part goes up into a metal square tube, and that's where it appears to be stuck.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thank you, Gord
Ajax, Ontario

 

Figured it out - there is a secondary lock which prevents the wheel from falling off if the stainless steel cable breaks.

The fix - I tightened the cable up all the way until the ratcheting device ratchetted several times.

Then I tried to lower the wheel, and it did.

I removed the spare tire, then I sprayed lots of Rust Check on the secondary lock, and greased up the cable and winch components, and re-installed the spare.

Hope this helps out anyone experiencing simialr problems.

Gord

 

Same thing happened with my 96, and I have yet to fix it. What's happening is that the latch is not releasing - a safety feature so the tire doesn't drop down onto the road should the cable or assemblyrust/break etc. While researching I got this info from another forum: Jack up the rear of the vehicle. Wind the spare "up". now put your jack under the spare to support its weight. Then "unwind" it. now look up through the spare to the winch assembly. You'll see a latch at the back - towards the rear of the van. Reach in with a long screwdriver and release it by moving it towards the rear of the van. If you've unwound the winch you should be able to move the plastic holder downwards. Once you've done this you can allow the tire to come down and remove it. Now remove the winch assembly - 5 or 6 bolts. Odds are you'll see apiece of wire hanging or it may have fallen out. You'll also see a spring clip - it clips onto the underside so when you unwind the winch it should pull the aforementioned latch to release the tire. You should be able to get this back in place by fiddling with it, or just attach a wire to the latch to work it manually. Or buy a new winch assembly - approx. $150.

Thanks to Larry and Michael from the carkb.com forum for this info.

Lee

 

Thanks for the info Gord. Glad you got yours fixed. Mine will take the longer route though - I heard parts falling when I tried lowering the spare . . .

Lee

 

Thanks for that information. It prevented me from getting irritated and breaking something!

I had the same problem. The tire would come down about an inch-and-a-half and then the cable would continue going down without the tire. When I turned the winch, it made a clicking sound. There's a wire link that goes from the latch up to thewinch shaft.Whenyou turn the winch to lower the tire, the wire is supposed to pull the latch out. I sprayed WD-40 around the winch shaft and into the latch mechanism. That freed up the wire so that it would move when turning the winch andthe clicking sound stopped. But the wire didn't have enough pull to release the catch.

The screwdriver trick didn't work for me because I couldn't get my hand up over the top of the tire and properly maneuver the screwdriver. I got a wire coat hanger, straightened it out, and made a small hook on the end. I reached in through one of the openings in the wheel,hooked the latch and pulled it out. Worked like a charm! That piece of coat hanger will now be stored with my jack in the jack compartment. Hope it doesn't rattle.

One more thing: I used the jackto support the weight of the tire while I was pulling on the latch with the coat hanger. Otherwise the weight of the tire may have prevented the latch from pulling out. The engineer in me tells me that the tire is permitted to go down an inch or so before the latch will feel the weight of the tire, allowing the latch to pull out as you start cranking the winch. But when it's all dirty and rusted, it doesn't work.

These mechanisms for outside storage of spares should be on everyone's list of periodic maintenance. Overall, I'd say that this mechanism is a nice idea, but a weak design.

Thanks for the help!

 

My spare was stuck again after 2 days.

When I finally got it down, I purposely broke the secondary lock right off to avoid the problem.

The winch assembly & cable are in excellent condidition because I always spray them in the Fall with RustCheck, so I don't think the tire is going to fall onto the road.

 

That was my fix also on my 2001, broke the latch off so it wont be a problem again.