Topic: Little electrical problem

[Tsd]

So, it has been a week since i bought mi '99 TJ, today since it was saturday i had the time to check some things. I bought a ramsey winch control to test the winch and when i did it only moved "in", although the relays clicked  it didnīt want to roll out, i had to roll it out manually. My first thought was that the control box had a fried relay. Then when i went under the jeep to change the oil I noticed that the ground cable that goes to the chassis was burned and cutted. I replaced the cable with a similar one and thought that may be that was why the winch was not working and when i tried to roll  out the winch again it FRIED the new ground cable and stalled the engine. 



Any idea what could be wrong? bad relay may be? stupid user? (always a possibility) 

Thanks in advance

Tsd

[Clem]

It sounds like you might have a shorted winding in the winch motor...

[Jesse-James]

That ground looks TINY for a winch!

[Tsd]

Yeah, when i was changing it i thought the same. It was the biggest cable i had laying around and it was better than nothing.

About the shorted winding iīm beginning to think i have water in my winch motor, since i was planing on giving it maintenance i will be looking for humidity as well.
Anybody had that problem before?

Thanks for the replies 

Tsd

[Jesse-James]

When this happened mine was underwater for about 20 min. Although I didn't use it afterwards I tore it down anyway and fount that the motor housing and gearbox had taken on water. The gears were caked as well so I can imagine if the winch is full of crap it could draw enough to smoke that tiny ground wire. Power and ground should be around 2 gauge. Either way I would tear it down for a cleaning and greasing and find some suitable wiring.

[Tsd]

When this happened mine was underwater for about 20 min. Although I didn't use it afterwards I tore it down anyway and fount that the motor housing and gearbox had taken on water. The gears were caked as well so I can imagine if the winch is full of crap it could draw enough to smoke that tiny ground wire. Power and ground should be around 2 gauge. Either way I would tear it down for a cleaning and greasing and find some suitable wiring.

Will do, thanks for the advice!

Cheers!
Tsd

[Jeffy]

That ground looks TINY for a winch!

I agree.  It's getting overloaded.  My Warn uses #2 Gauge between the main power and ground.  The lines between the solenoids and the winch were #4 Gauge but I changed them out to #2 Gauge as well.

[Clem]

The water in the motor would cause the shorted winding. If you smoked the ground with little or no load on the winch, the motor is more than likely the culprit that was induced by abuse (water) and improper installation. Gotta love the PO blues...