Broken Winch

Out green laning today. Got stuck so wound winch out, hooked up to tree and winched out. Then un hooked winch, went to reel it in and nothing. Solinoid clicked but nothing hapening to motor. Brought it home, taken apart. Motor is getting power to it but not turning. Took it all to bits looked fine. Brushes looked good etc. Need some advise about what to do?

Thanks!!!

check the connections between the posts/studs (that the cables attach to) and their attachment to the brushes internally. Clean the armature with electrical contact cleaner and make sure the plates bolted to the winch motor body are clean.

have you run an independent motor test?

Warn Winch Installation test procedure is at the bottom. Its very simple and will certainly eliminate any solonoid and/or cable problem etc.

what winch is it, where are you based, how long have you had it, how abused/dirty does it get?

G

Hi thanks for your help. No im a bit unsre how to do the independant test? There are three cables going to the motor, a blue, red and yellow. It gets reasonably dirty but nothing to much. It wasn't particually dirty when i took it apart. The plates do look a little dirty. Just seems a bit odd how it suddenly died. All three cables to the motor have 12v when the winch is switched on

Sounds like something interal on the motor of the winch.

These things are very basic, so there is not much to wrong with them. out of those 3 thick cables 1 will be power and the other 2 are simply, in and out.

the power cable is usually on its own and the in/out are closer together. There should also be an earth on the underside of the motor body.

try disconnecting one of the in/out power leads to narrow down which one is at fault. then using the other (known good) cable put it on the (known) bad connection to see if you get any results.

sounds more complicated than it is! if you do this and it does not work then it is certainly an internal fault in the motor. If it DOES work then you have a fault somewhere in the solonoid connection.

HTH for now.

G

When you power on to wind in, have someone pull on the winch rope, well away from the fairlead, so the motor has some pressure to act against.

A mates does this fairly regularly (he doesn't believe in maintenance) and he has to manually turn the winch drum as he powers in until it catches .. He's a dick ...

i tried that when I was out but no luck. So when testing, I disconnect one of the in/out leads, then try it. Then if nothing, Re connect it and try disconnectiong the other one. If nothing still its the motor?

solenoids fooked..replace with an albrite one

how can you tell its the solenoid and not the motor?

could it be somethin simple like a bad earth?? thats what happened to mine.

No its not an earth I have checked that. What I dont undertsand is the three wires,

When I tested the three big cables feeding the motor they all gave a reading of 12v regardless of which direction the switch was (in or out). Surely this isnt right? Surely there should only be two cables giving a reading at once?

Or have I got it wrong

I seem to remember someone on here (Landyzone) posting a checklist for electric winches ... I can't be arsed searching for it as I don't have the problem, but if you do a search there's definitely a good instruction sheet for exactly this problem somewhere on here .. )

newson said:

how can you tell its the solenoid and not the motor?

Click to expand...

goin by wot mine done..u could hear the solenoids clicking but not working..replaced with an albrite and worked fine

YEah you can hear the solenoids clicking. But I think they are working as there is power to the motor. I can't find that guide on here???

newson said:

I can't find that guide on here???

Click to expand...

Took less than a minute ... though this only checks if the motor's working .. which tells you if it is you might need to look more closely at the solenoids .. )

Winch test

ffs the guide is in the 2nd post. I linked to it!

Griffdowg said:

ffs the guide is in the 2nd post. I linked to it!

Click to expand...

LOL, sorry mate, I didn't read the link or even click it .. indeed I had no reason to!!

Looks like you can't help some people enough ....

i didnt know if this was the same guide or not!!!!

Yebbut you didn't read Griffs link, or you wouldn't have asked how you can test the solenoid or motor as it was already in there!

Yes I did. I was interested to see if they wdere the same thing or not and if anyone had any ideas what it could be.

Right, tested it and it appears to be the motor. I've striped it right down and given it a good clean up. It all looks in tact. The brushes etc are ok. Is there anything I should be looking for?