Once had a 87 *-10 ,really nice truck for the yr. Had a flat one night coming home. I had all the tools, problem was the spare tire reel was completely locked up. Ended up using a pare of vice gripes to bed the ears on the tire holder.

Oops, wrong thread.

No, it works. Nothing worse than a spare frozen and unable to drop due to corroded cable. Ten times worse to fix when it is five below and wind blowing. Guess now is a good time to drop that spare and put never-seize on the cable and lube the gear mechanism.

i never had one that worked when i got it, if the mechanism is that bad the tire is not likely good enough to use either. the spares on the used pickups i had where as dry rotted as anything sitting in the sun for 10yrs. not safe to use.