Winch will not free spool or disengage the cable - Steps To Follow

Do the following process/test to try to free the clutch ring gear from the inside of the gear box on gear driven winches, this process is NOT for Hydraulic Winches.

1. Always keep in mind that SAFETY is very important, go through these steps slowly.
2. Power out the winch cable and hook the cable to a solid or very heavy object, the objective is not to pull the tree or vehicle, just provide a fixed point to hold and secure the cable.
3. Lift and turn the clutch handle to the disengaged, free-spool position.
4. With the hand controller jog the slack out of the winch cable (making sure the clutch handle is disengaged) and apply tension to the cable by winching the cable in, if the clutch gear is stuck to the inside of the gearbox housing, it should not take a lot of tension on the cable to free the clutch gear from the housing.
5. Once the winch motor is running freely and you can see the cable is not having tension applied to the winch or the anchor point you secured the cable to.  Stop the winching and carefully use your hand to pull out on the cable to see if the cable can be pulled out freely now.
6. By winching the winch in with the clutch in free spool and disengaged, the grease inside the winch gearbox is spread around the inside of the gearbox housing and between the clutch ring gear again.  Sticking of the Clutch Ring Gear inside the Gearbox Housing can happen after the winch has not been used for a while. 

Again, always keep in mind that SAFETY is very important, go through these steps slowly. This will sometimes fix this type of issue, but it might not be the fix for all issues when the winch will not free spool or disengage the cable.