deere 440a winch trouble

[thumper]

one very cold morning, i noticed a different noise coming from the winch as i was rigging up my twitch.  i pulled the cable in and drove to the yard.  the winch holds and pulls great, but when i put the control to freespool, the winch drum kinda chatters and the cable pulls out very hard. i decided to try a filter and check the oil (no change) and found there is oil way over the check plug level.  any ideas guys? winch has worked excellent for the past 5yrs.

[Firewoodjoe]

Water. Generally a fillter will fix but may need to drain and replace. Then go from there.

[thumper]

water was my first thought. but the oil thats pouring out of the check plug is nice looking and not milky??

[grassfed]

Well there is no way for more oil to enter the winch unless someone overfilled it because winch oil is separate.

Just make sure it is hydraulic/trans (JD Hy-Gard or similar)  oil not heavy gear oil. You said it was cold and JD says that you can use Hy-Gard lite viscosity if it is too cold.

The hydraulic pump is on the bottom inside the winch I had a problem once with a small piece of plastic clogging my pump pickup screen.

You need hydraulic pressure to release the brake and let the winch free spool.

There are different Hydraulic controls/spools depending on the manufacture date. I have one that has a spool attached to the back of the winch. This spool is cable operated by a lever in the "cab". On these spools you can adjust the relief pressure with a screw on top of the spool.

There are other adjustments too and the JD manual is pretty good at describing how to set the winch up/troubleshoot. You should be able to get a PDF version of a shop manual online at jdparts.com if you need one.