husky winch solenoid clicks no motor movement on one direction (pantelis)

People Hi,

I have bought a secondhand Superwinch Husky and genuine Land Rover parts winch bumper as a set from e-bay. The winch came with the standard "Barrel" type solenoids and not the heavy duty Albright ones.

I have removed the Husky winch from the bumper (was surplus to requirements) and yesterday tested the winch.

I applied power feed and ground to the black and red thick wires (the original wiring was included)

And then tried to operate the winch.

The solenoid clicks nicely and the motor starts whining and the drum moves to the one side. Trying to do the same for the other side only results in a nice and loud (as supposed) click from the solenoid.

The funny thing is that for the first two tries the winch was moving on both sides. And then movement to the one side stopped eventhough the solenoid clicks when activate for either side operation.

The drum moves freely when in free spool mode.

Reversing the power feed gives exactly the same results.

I would be gratuful if someone could propose something.

Take care and thanks in advance Pantelis Giamarellos

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Reply to
Pantelis Giamarellos
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It sounds as though one of the solenoids (relays) is faulty - the contacts not the coil, as both solenoids 'click'. Have you tried tapping the solenoids with a hammer?

The motor field coil must be OK as you can make the motor rotate.

Additionally, some of the external wiring/links only see current when a particular direction is selected. The main wires from the solenoids to the motor are common to both directions of rotation so they are OK. Check anything else around the solenoids. Check for poor connections, broken links/wires.

(Written by someone who has never seen one of these - if it does not make sense you will understand why!)

Reply to
Dougal

It sounds as though one of the solenoids (relays) is faulty - the contacts not the coil, as both solenoids 'click'. Have you tried tapping the solenoids with a hammer?

The motor field coil must be OK as you can make the motor rotate.

Additionally, some of the external wiring/links only see current when a particular direction is selected. The main wires from the solenoids to the motor are common to both directions of rotation so they are OK. Check anything else around the solenoids. Check for poor connections, broken links/wires.

(Written by someone who has never seen one of these - if it does not make sense you will understand why!)

Reply to
Dougal

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Reply to
Dougal

It sounds as though one of the solenoids (relays) is faulty - the contacts not the coil, as both solenoids 'click'. Have you tried tapping the solenoids with a hammer?

The motor field coil must be OK as you can make the motor rotate.

Additionally, some of the external wiring/links only see current when a particular direction is selected. The main wires from the solenoids to the motor are common to both directions of rotation so they are OK. Check anything else around the solenoids. Check for poor connections, broken links/wires.

(Written by someone who has never seen one of these - if it does not make sense you will understand why!)

Reply to
Dougal

It sounds as though one of the solenoids (relays) is faulty - the contacts not the coil, as both solenoids 'click'. Have you tried tapping the solenoids with a hammer?

The motor field coil must be OK as you can make the motor rotate.

Additionally, some of the external wiring/links only see current when a particular direction is selected. The main wires from the solenoids to the motor are common to both directions of rotation so they are OK. Check anything else around the solenoids. Check for poor connections, broken links/wires.

(Written by someone who has never seen one of these - if it does not make sense you will understand why!)

Reply to
Dougal

I would be expecting one of the solenoids to have an intermittent failure to actually complete the supply to the motor in the non operational drive, however it could just as easily be a loose connection. Can you take some photos and put them up somewhere so we can see what you have?

There is often a good reason why things are sold second hand :-(

Reply to
cynic

Undoubtedly dirty contacts in a solenoid, especially if they are not the correct heavy duty ones. They can be taken apart and cleaned up, but will never be reliable again due to the butchery likely to be needed to get them apart. You can get away with starter motor types for testing, but not for work.

Gord> >

Reply to
gordon

People Hi,

thanks for the input.

I will try the "hit it with a hammer, ask questions later" approach as proposed.

The funny thing is that the winch has operated OK both ways (winding up and down) when I have first connected the battery and then operated the handheld controler. And then all of a sudden it would not wind down.....

In the past I have opened and cleaned the contact surface on the Albright solenoids on both my ex Camel Trophy evented Discos. Easy and hassle free job and it is now more than 10 years of trouble free operation. But it will be my first time with the standard type barrels like solenoids.

Will take pictures during the weekend and post them for everybody to see.

Thanks again for your input and assistance.

Take care Pantelis Giamarellos

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I would be expecting one of the solenoids to have an intermittent failure to actually complete the supply to the motor in the non operational drive, however it could just as easily be a loose connection. Can you take some photos and put them up somewhere so we can see what you have?

There is often a good reason why things are sold second hand :-(

Reply to
Pantelis Giamarellos

I was given an old 8000lb winch a while back, that "didnt work".

The (permanent magnet) motor was OK, but the gear train was full of congeled grease and muck. Cleaning that out got the mechanics working again (but it still needs more work before use.)

The two "Barrel" type solenoids though, despite being "fully sealed" (according to the remains of the labels on them) were stuffed full of fine dirt, to the point that the armature couldnt move at all. Even with the aid of a "persuader"...

"Starter" type solenoids can be used, but. You'll need 4 of them (or more, depending on the type of winch motor you have and how it's wired) as they only have one set of "normaly open" big contacts, plus their coils are not rated for much more than a few 10's of seconds use at a time, before they will overheat and begin to fail.

Remember to fit (and keep a spare with the vehicle) a suitable high current fuse, as solenoid swithching systems can fail in "Bad" ways. I've seen one vehicle electrical fire, I don't want to hear of others.

Take care.

Dave B.

Reply to
DaveB

I was given an old 8000lb winch a while back, that "didnt work".

The (permanent magnet) motor was OK, but the gear train was full of congeled grease and muck. Cleaning that out got the mechanics working again (but it still needs more work before use.)

The two "Barrel" type solenoids though, despite being "fully sealed" (according to the remains of the labels on them) were stuffed full of fine dirt, to the point that the armature couldnt move at all. Even with the aid of a "persuader"...

"Starter" type solenoids can be used, but. You'll need 4 of them (or more, depending on the type of winch motor you have and how it's wired) as they only have one set of "normaly open" big contacts, plus their coils are not rated for much more than a few 10's of seconds use at a time, before they will overheat and begin to fail.

Remember to fit (and keep a spare with the vehicle) a suitable high current fuse, as solenoid swithching systems can fail in "Bad" ways. I've seen one vehicle electrical fire, I don't want to hear of others.

Take care.

Dave B.

I fitted a solid state 100A trip switch to my small winch on the back of my Discovery. I use it for recovering my boat trailer. The cable is protected with a 120A mega fuse.

Davy M.

Reply to
DavyMurray

People Hi,

glad to report that the problem was solved.

Eventhough the "hit it with a hammer" approached worked nicely it only laster for only a while.

So a pair of new "barrel" type solenoids has replaced the old ones and everything now works OK.

Dave you are absolutely right about the megafuse. But on top of that I always fit an electrics master switch exclusively for the winch electrics.

As for car fires I can only say BTDT..... Back in 1988 I had the joy of experiencing such a joy with a Fiat Uno Turbo I used to drive back then. A plastic clip broke and the main electric feed wire from the battery to the starter motor touched the exhaust manifold...... The good thing that I had the fire extinguisher handy and managed to control and stop the fire with only the main wire being damaged (this little Fiat Uno had stainless steel flexswire covered fuel lines and the surrounding area had thermal shields all around so the fire did not damage a thing apart from the wire that caught fire. If only they had invested a few pennies more on a less fragile clip....

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Thank you everybody for your suggestion and assistance. The HUSKY winch now works like a dream.

Take care Pantelis Giamarellos

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Reply to
Pantelis Giamarellos

Hi.

Me too, back in the early 90's.

My old SIII/109, the tail light wire where it goes through (the only non protected) 'P' clip in the rear tool box, shorted. So when I turned the lights on, the whold lot end to end, dash and all went up in my face while driving. Not nice when you can't see or breathe when driving round a curve at 45MPH!... (The A508 near Cosgrove.)

It took me an hour or two at the side of the road (I managed to stop without killing myself) to isolate the damage, and cobble enough together so I could re-start the thing (2&1/4 diesel) and drive the last few miles home to East MK, with only front side lights!

When I re-wired it, I added fuses for everything!

LR, in their infinate wisdom, did not fuse the obligatory lights at all on the SIII and earlier (also some very early 90's and 110's I believe!)

The damage to the loom was most impressive. I used two roll's of 7 core trailer cable to re-wire it all. It's still going well, after a later rebuild into the Series 4&3/4 (SIII coiler + TDi) that it is now.

Take care.

DaveB

Reply to
DaveB

Had my own wiring fire on my first RR.

It had been treated to a second battery wired in parallel with the existing battery. The positive cable was, as I found out during the postmortem, only held in place with plastic cable ties and ran above the steering column. Said ties failed and allowed the positive cable to wind round the steering column which gradually wore through the insulation. The resulting short only burnt out the earth from the rear lights and melted the plastic sheath on the throttle cable. Or so I thought. I disentangled the positive feed and, having let everything cool, freed the throttle cable - which had partially seized

- and carried on my way home very carefully. I replaced the positive supply from the second battery and routed carefully and used better fixings, replaced the throttle cable and the damaged sections of lighting loom. About three months later it failed its pre-MOT test when one of the Goodrich braided brake hoses burst. Close inspection revealed that the liner (PTFE tubing?) had melted. We could only conclude that the stainless steel brake hoses presented a better earth return between chassis and body - along with the throttle cable - than the existing earth straps. Goodrich were kind enough to send me a replacement set of hoses and think about putting a note in the packets about ensuring that earth straps were in perfect condition.

BOL

Richard

Reply to
Richard Savage

Richard Hi,

excellent thing to bear in mind, about stainless steel braided brake hose possibly acting as grounds.

A similar thing has also been reportd for the handbrake cable on our Prince of Darkness infested Landies !!!! (LOL)

A good ground strap, even better fitting an additional one is always a good safety measure and costs almost nothing.

Take care Pantelis Giamarellos

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Reply to
Pantelis Giamarellos

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