terryjmatthew

The story begins here---> http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...ADME:B:BN:MT:1

I receive the winch about ten days later and notice that there are no power cables (read:pay more attention when bidding on E-bay).
A few days later I order a new motor from Warn and start building my own cables (Bad idea- but that will be for another thread!). After finally assembling the cabes, I get everything wired up per this write-up on Pirate4x4. Everything to this point has been a PITA, but a learning experience.

Which leads us to today-

I wire the solenoid box to the battery and to the winch(Grounded winch motor to core support), hook up the controller and ..... Nothing!
After jiggling the wires and double-checking everything, it decides to work (Although one of the solenoids is making a funny noise). Five minutes later... Nothing!!! What gives????
Recheck my connections again (everything is tight), and Voila (sp?) It works again.

Now is where the real headache begins.

Try one last time b/f I remove the bumper and the damn motor comes on and will not stop running. By the time I decide to remove the battery cable (~30 sec's) I look up and my battery ground from battery-->body is smoking???? So....I quickly remove the positive battery cable end (loosing the nut in the process) and everything appears to be OK with the exception of my fried ground strap.


At this point. I now have about $+-600.00 in a $700.00(new) winch that is determined not to work!!
You could say that I'm slightly pissed about the whole situation.
Guess I might put it back on E-bay and try to find the next sucker, Unless someone can help me get this damn thing working!!!

Sorry for the super long post, but I had to vent. Maybe someone can give me some advice on this one.

I guess I am just lucky the whole truck didn't go up in flames.

midiwall

It doesn't help you now, but it sounds like there was a question that should have been asked of the seller before closing the deal: "If the motor is blown, how can you know that everything else is okay?".


If something blew the motor (probably along the lines of trying to tug a load for a while that wasn't moving) then the motor's gonna pull a LOT of current while burning through it's windings. I would bet on one or more of the solenoids being shot.

Given the fact that the seller claimed "...but everthing else is a ok", you MIGHT be able to go back to him with the knowledge that everything else was NOT "a ok" and get some of your money back - like the cost of replacing the solenoids.


And fwiw, my druthers wouldn't let me put it back on eBay with the same basic description - it wouldn't be fair to the next guy down the road.

4Crawler

iTrader: (3)

Not sure which winch it is, but the Warn 9000 and 9000i winches I have seen leave the motor "floating", that is it is not grounded at all. The 4 solenoids are wired in a bridge arrangement, like a diamond, 12V at the top, ground and the bottom and the motor in between the two middle corners. Turn on one pair of the diagonal solenoids and the motor sees 12V and Gnd (and turns one way), turn on the other pair and it sees Gnd and 12V (and turns the other way).

terryjmatthew

So maybe I should try no ground at all?
Am I understanding this correctly?
I have yet to find a good diagram to go by. The instructions from the Warn pdf say "+" to battery "+" and "-" to motor housing.

I hate to abandon this project at this point, considering I am already way "upside-down" in this winch.

terryjmatthew

Roger,
Something else to ponder. For about a minute, It worked fine.
Or was that just an odd coincidence?

Thanks

terryjmatthew

It appears that grounding to the body severly overloads the OEM ground strap, which would account for it damn-near melting. According to Pirate4x4, the winch draws somewhere b/w 400-700 amps.

It stands to reason that I probably have two problems-
1.) Insufficient Ground
2.) Malfunctioning solenoid(s)

If anyone else has any input, then feel free to post up.

4Crawler

iTrader: (3)

Here's my Warn 9000 solenoid box:



Battery 12V attaches to the far left bus bar, battery Gnd connects to the far right bus bar (both cables *must* go to the battery, do not use frame or chassis ground). The motor "+ is the red cable in the lower center U-shaped buss bar and the motor "-" is the upper center U-shaped bus bar.

terryjmatthew

My control box is wired just like yours w/ the exception of mine having a wire coming from the "top-right" pole to the pole on the winch body marked "A" (Armature).
Your winch does have three poles on top and one on bottom correct?
1.) F1
2.) F2
3.) A
Ground bolt on bottom

4Crawler

iTrader: (3)

I can't see the connections with my winch installed. I think that the battery ground cable does connect to the bottom (or front as my winch is installed) and that also connects up to the solenoid via a cable off the other side of the motor. I forgot about that connection earlier.

terryjmatthew

You are pretty certain that the ground goes back to the solenoid and not the battery?
Just trying to figure this whole mess out.

4Crawler

iTrader: (3)

As I recall from testing mine out when I installed it a few years ago, I had 12V on the left side of the solenoid and ground (0V) on the right side. Then depending on which pair of solenoids were powered up, the center had 12V/Gnd or Gnd/12V. I had a 9000i winch installed before with a quick disconnect power cable and all I did for the 9000 winch was to swap the quick disconnect cable. The motor and solenoid were all wired when I got it. I did have to go in and clean up the connections inside. You might try contacting Warn tech support directly for the wiring details.

terryjmatthew

Bump...

I think I am going to buy a couple solenoids today and try it again (grounded to the battery this time). Hopefully that will take care of my problems.

slyang1012

Man.... Not To B A Jerk Or Anythihng.. But I Was Just Wondering If You Regret Not Spending A Little More Moneyto Get It Brand New Without All This Head/heart Ache?- Or Do U Rather Enjoy Working On It And Take Pride With The Result That It Works?

shazaam

grounding both neg to the battery fixed my problem as well. Also just another suggestion, call up rockstomper on on of the other outfits and spend $100 and get a synthetic line. It's a lot safer then the steel line, also it ony weighs a fraction of what the steel line weighs, so your truck won't be bogged down as much in the front. Do it now so you don't have to pull the bumper and winch off the truck again to replace it.

I sold my steel line on Ebay for $40 to help recover part of the cost.

good luck man!

terryjmatthew

Thanks jerk! j/k

Yes, I kick myself in the a$$ every time I think about it, but I always tend to do things the hard way!(read:way too hard headed)

Shahzad,
I appreciate the advice, but after all of this- My winch fund has long since disappeared.

To anyone else following this thread- Don't be a tight-a$$, Go ahead and cough up the extra money the first time and be done w/ it!!!

terryjmatthew

Just a follow up- Replaced three of the solenoids and properly grounded the solenoid pack. Got it mounted in the bumper(real PITA-by yourself) and everything works like it should.
Pretty sure it was a bad ground the entire time. Oh well, Live and learn.

Now where's something I can winch?

netwt12

glad to hear you got it working. you should have just kept the M10000.

terryjmatthew

You think??