[MrForbes]

Yes, a window motor would work well for a winch. You will have to go to some trouble to figure out how to make the spool, and attach it to the motor gear adapter, and support it in bearings or bushings....

also you'll need to figure out the maximum load on the cable, and design the spool so it is the correct diameter to translate the available torque of the motor into force pulling the cable. And remember to derate the torque of the motor, that is, set it up so that you are only using about 20% of the "stall torque" at maximum loading.

Example:

for a motor rated at 10 N-m stall torque, you would design it to need a maximum of 2 N-m.

Let's say your mechanism needs a force on the actuating cable of 50 N to raise the arm. The available torque is 2 N-m, so your spool radius would be 2/50 = 0.04 m

so the spool diameter would be 0.08 m (that's about 3 inches, right?)

edit:
also you can use the speed of the motor to figure out the rate at which the winch pulls in the cable. If the motor is rated at 85 rpm at no load, it might turn at about 80% of that speed with a 20% load on it. So, you'll get about 68 rpm.

With a spool with a diameter of 0.08m, you will pull in 0.08 x pi meters of cable per revolution. That's .25 meters/revolution, and 68/60 x .25 = 0.28 meters per second (about 1 foot per second).