I have a Warn winch it is either a 4 or 5000 lb. winch on the front of my 1992 Yota and the only way it will work is if you tap it with a hammer and hold the button but it only works for a second i was told it was brushes but i am not sure anyone know what my problem is  

How old is it? Sounds like the drum/motor are binding up and hitting it with the hammer frees it up for a second (like the old starter trick). Warn's have a pretty good warranty, I would look into sending it in for service.  

its prolly as old as the truck but im not really sure. is it worth fixing or would it be just as cheap to get a new one by the time i fix the old one  

Call Warn first. Don't quote me on it but I thought they had some sort of limited lifetime warranty... if nothing else it wouldn't be bad to look into.

How mechanically/electrically savy are you? You could always take the winch apart, clean, lube, and reassemble it. That might just do the trick.  

i'm pretty good at mechanics ill give it a try and if it dont work i'll give them a call thanks