Well the 12000lb winch has gone back to Supercheap Auto.

Why? All simple it would not free spool easily. To get the rope off the drum under free spool it was a huge pull and very slow. Even with no rope on the drum it was almost impossible to turn the drum under free spool.

I put this down to the fact the winch has not been run at all.
Anyway repacked the gearbox, put in a new gearbox washers and rotated the gearbox to what I needed for the install.

During all this I noticed the gears worked well turned and had no restriction in movement.
I did note that the motor was stiff, very hard to turn. By twisting the shaft the motor shaft at the motor housing.

I then in a bit of web looking at a few forums discussing winches, I, found this YouTube vid.

tigerz11 winch problems
https://youtu.be/2gUCnIaFwFY

Seems the guy was having the same issue with his winch that is hard to pull the cable in free spool.
Made me think possibly something was wrong with my winch.

Anyway I had a chat with the local Suercheap Auto store and they said no it should free spool easily., so bring it in and we will look at it..
Went home pick it up, took it in. Since I am one of those people who accidently joined thei club, there was a record of my purchase on their system, less than 6 months old.
Response, winch stuffed how about a replacement?
Fine.
Checked replacement and it free spooled as expected.

Now new winch.

One issue, the new control box is different to the old ones. So now for a bit more rewiring and fitting of new control box. I might be able to keep some of the old wiring but it looks like a bit extra will have to be done.

All I can say is that the service from from the manager Rick at the local Supercheap Auto shop was great.

Also glad now I did join their club thing as I have no idea where the receipt for the winch is., the computer record at least proved I had purchased the winch.