Went to change a flat tire on my wife's 99 Grand Caravan yesterday, only to find that the spare wouldn't lower more than 6". the cable itself came out of the spindle (3 feet of it...), but I couldn't get the spare to drop. I tried spinning the spare and the spindle, but nothing I did could get it to drop. Any hints or tricks to this? thanks...
Yeah thats a bitch, same ting happened on my 2000 GC. It took a while to figure out, dealer will tell you that it has to be cut down. What happens is there is a safety lock mechanism on the winch. It locks the wheel up so that if the cable rusts and breaks the tire won't fall out from underneath. It is held up by a plastic rod which looks like large bolt. Go to the dealer and have the parts guy show you ALL the views of the winch assembly, you can get the spare down by spending a few hours underneath, prying and twisting at the lock mechanism. Then clean up the road dirt and lube the heck out of the cable and mechanism, preferably with a dry lube so it does not attract dirt easily. I wish I could explain it better, but I did this last winter and can't explain the exact procedure I used and its not in any manual or Caravan book I saw. I was not willing to pay the 150$ the dealer wanted for the part.
P.S. Did you follow the procedure in the owners manual to drop the tire or did you just start cranking. If you don't do it right you will never get the tire down after cleaning up the lock mechanism anyhow. It is very specific on how to do it and after cleaning mine worked fine.
regards
Another good reason to drive sedans over vans/SUVs...just lift the (clean) spare out of the trunk well.
I do have a 1997 Caravan and hadn't noticed this partucular problem when I've needed to change a flat. Just generally cumbersome and a VERY dirty job since the spare tire is under the vehicle collecting all that road grime!
Seeing this discussion made me wonder about my wife's 2000 GC so last night I got the owners manual out and it says nothing about a latch, just the nut to lower the cable. Obviously I've never had to access the spare but I guess on the next warm day I better give it a try to find out what the real story is.
John Keith snipped-for-privacy@juno.com
MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.