Hey all -

I wanted to get some additional thoughts on my winch issue. Last time I tested it was probably 6 weeks ago, but I don't use it often, and the Rover will sit in my garage a bit for repairs (most recent one AC and polys in rear lower control arms). So I disconnected the winch to replace the a/c drier. I marked the wires, and upon reconnecting, I get a slow/non-existent turning in out or in. It doesn't seem to move on out, and will REALLY REALLY slowly go on in for about 3 secs or so (talking 1/8 inch travel a second).

I did remote locate the winch box to the driver side cubby where the ABS brakes are. I am running 0 AWG from the solenoid to the winch. I do have bus bar in there for other accessories, and the power to the control box solenoid is run off that bus bar. I tested the winch separately from the car battery, and jumping the wires, and it moves like you would expect. When I volt meter the winch on the driven lead, it is only producing like 5.5 - 6.5 volts. So that seems to be a problem. I have ohmed out all lines, all are fine, install was only 6 months ago. I've tripled checked the connections. This solenoid is the style where you run a negative from the battery to the ground on the winch. You run power to the solenoid, then a power out goes from the solenoid to the power on the winch. The two turning leads (yellow and black) are then run to the winch for control. To test my connections to the control box solenoid, I ran a jumper to the positive cable, on the battery, to the power-in on the solenoid, I upgraded the negative cable to the battery to 0 AWG (I was using the manufacturing supplied 4-6 gage or something), and I get exactly the same issue. This was to eliminate a power loss issue through my bus bar as being the culprit.

In either scenario, the solenoid kicks hard in forward or reverse, but am getting the ~6V to the winch. With all that testing, I am leaning on solenoid. Thoughts?

 

How is the ground wiring done?

 

Im running a 0 AWG from the negative terminal on the battery direct to the negative lead on the winch.

 

Does the case of the solenoid need to be grounded? If it was originally connected to the winch and you relocated it, ,you may have distributed the ground side of the circuit.

Try grounding the case of the solenoid and see if that helps

Jeff

 

Thanks Jeff. This is the wiring diagram. No ground to it. It confused me at first, because this style solenoid is different from the diagrams I have seen of the Warn winches. The ground is supplied from the negative terminal of the battery. Only battery power is supplied to this solenoid. I've ordered another solenoid. I'll report back after swapping it out ...

 

So, there is a ground connection between the solenoid and the winch motor. What gage wire did you use for that?

At this point, you may be looking at a new solenoid.

 

Hi Jeff - 0 AWG - All around. The only line that in lesser awg is the positive to the solenoid. That is the gauge that came with the kit coming off a 0 awg power line to the bus bar. I bypassed the bus bar in one testing and ran a jumper cable from the battery to the power to eliminate that and no change.

 

After looking at the diagram you sent, I wonder............Could you have the positive leads swapped? Sorry to keep asking simple one item questions, but I was not there when you installed it.

Does the solenoid have any marking indicating which red wire goes where?
Can you send a picture of the solenoid?

 

0awg for the solenoid case ground? That makes no sense. Mine is like 12 or maybe even 14.

 

I marked them before removing, but doesn't hurt to have a double check. In the picture, the one to the far right (yellow) is F1, The one to the far left is (black) is F2. The one to the bottom is terminal positive (B+) and the one to the top is (A) which is the lead to the positive connection on the battery.