[EricH]

Originally Posted by Monochron

We were trying to be clever and remove the need for shifting into a neutral gear back attaching the ratchet to the motor shaft and using a worm drive in our winch. That way the ratchet would wind up the winch and the worm drive would give us our hard stop. Then to fire we only have to switch the ratchet's clutch and it would easily unwind.

What? Worm gears don't unwind "easily" as a general rule of thumb. They don't backdrive well, generally speaking; you'd have to power the motor in reverse at top speed. See "window motor". There are worm gears that do backdrive, but they're not all that easy to find.