Gearmatic 119 brake dragging

[62oliver]

Just an effort to share information:

I've had some trouble with my Gearmatic 119 this year. I've had this machine for about 8 years. When I got it the winch was not working. I bought some parts and did some work on it and it has worked great the whole time. Sometimes a little stiff to get going, but once you got it turning it would be fine.

This year however, was different. I could not get it to free spool. I had to tie it to a tree or some thing to get the cable out. I thought it would get better as I used it, but the best it would do was to come out a few inches at a time when I pulled by hand with great effort. It got old fast.
I decided to struggle with it to get my annual firewood requirement, and I would look at it later.

So the last couple days I dug into it and what I found was that the main anchor pin for the secondary brake band (the wide band in the back), was seized to the brake band and in the housing, so that the brake band would never fully release the drum.

The pin was a bit of a struggle to get out, but I put a bolt in the threaded hole, and with an impact I worked it out without too much trouble. 
Cleaned everything up, and put some anti-seize on it, and got it back together. 
Working great again.

I think I've decided that if I have to tear into that winch again I'm just going to pull it out of the machine, as it would be much easier to work on. Looks simple enough to do.

Just putting it out there as something to check if you are having similar issues.