Thread: Warn winch not turning

I tend to agree BUT...

if the solenoids have been worked to try and drive a shorted winding or brush it can kill the solenoids after the fact....

one of my pet hates is trying to fault find something thats got 2 possible faults, finding one, thinking Ive got it fixed just to find out the first fixed fault was hiding another.. (there is a reason I know about finding "phantom voltatges" on stuffed winches, and its not cause dad told me about it when I was young)

Fair nuff Dave,
But fixing the solenoid or fixing the motor will still be easier on the bench... and you can service the gear bag at the same time

I just dont see the point if a winch is playing up - yank it fix it re-install it!
Unless of course it has been serviced in the last 12 months?

Maybe Im a touch sensitive, as a burnt motor/solenoid/poor cabling added at least 2 hours to my sunday recovery last weekend. If you have a winch, service the bloody thing so it doesnt let you down when in the goop!

S

Concur.....

but I like to fault find prior to pulling it down, with a set of aligator clips on a h4 bulb Ive been really lucky to find that nope, the solenoids arent passing power.... open solenoid box and oh look one of the solenoids has been trying to pretend its contact points were a carbon arc light.

I'll happily invest 5 minutes per fix if I can get a 1:10 return for an easy fix.

I managed to steal an hour last night and did the above test- no response from the winch so I removed it and stripped the motor end down. I was shocked at how much corrosion and muck was in the brush end of the motor. Thought I might be able to un-seize the brushes but one of the springs- the lower one I guess- was badly corroded and it snapped as I was fiddling with it, so it's a new brush assembly at least. I'm away for the week but after then I will replace the brush assembly and the motor bearings, plus strip down, clean and regrease the gearbox before it goes back in. Anyone know a good source of warn replacement parts in south-eastern Melbourne?
Also found some interesting info on the position of the drain holes in these motors- they come from the factory configured to sit in a bolts-down orientation, and are supposed to have the drain holes swapped around prior to mounting in a bolts-forward configuration such as mine is. This had not been done, so the motor fills up with water to the half-way mark.

I bought a complete new generic motor for my xd9000 from the states on ebay, $160 delivered about 2 years ago, it was after installing that that i found the poor earth problem....
Richard

I used to pull mine apart and service it myself but now for the time and convenience I take it to smithies outback gear in cranbourne. Knows his stuff and has most parts in stock so a quick turnaround.

Rob

Thanks for the replies, I've just got back from a week away, will be working in Clayton area for the next month so will see if I can find a parts supplier near there. Otherwise will give the bloke in Cranbourne a call.

Got the winch sorted and back on the vehicle today. I shopped around for a set of brushes and then found the guy here in Warragul was about $25 cheaper than anywhere else. I cleaned up the armature in the lathe, replaced the brushes, stripped, cleaned and regreased the gearbox end and all is good.
The drain-hole thing is apparently very common, there are 2 drain holes at 90 degrees to each other, where the motor meets the winch housing. One of the holes is intended to be left clear, whilst the other is sealed with a dob of silicon. They come from the factory with the appropriate hole clear to allow drainage when they are mounted bolts-down, as is apparently most common in the US. If installed with the bolts forward, the installer is supposed to undo the motor, clear the silicon from the hole that will now be on the bottom, and seal up the hole that will now be at the 3-o'clock position. This apparently almost never gets done and the motors consequently fill with water to half-way up. Might be worth checking for others with this arrangement, very annoying when the winch doesn't work.