Winch clutch lever difficult to engage

Hey guys, I bought a brand new winch a few months ago and have noticed that it is sometime difficult to engage the clutch. It is always easy to move the lever to the FREE SPOOL position but when I turn it towards the engage direction, it will only turn 1/4 of the way ( not fully engaged ) I sometimes have to keep pulling the cable out and rocking the lever back and forth until it finally engages. When it does engage it does so easily. ( the lever itself is not stiff ) Its almost like something is not lining up correctly inside the gearbox.

Is this fairly normal with winches? Its only a cheap one but have had a few mates with Warn winches with the same issue, they just use a hammer to tap it into place.