Whats wrong with my winch?

[HeavyMetal]

Warn VR8000

Yes its plugged in, yes its grounded.

It worked twice on light duty work and then never again.

This is what it does when you hit spool, and then unspool. It will do it as long as i hold the button.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMYjx9o8Tts[/ame]

[hoggie101]

Is it fully engaged

[HeavyMetal]

Yes

[Pedro]

Sounds like me in bed in the morning

[BRock89GW]

Its hard to tell for me what the sound is in the video, if its gears grinding or motor struggling. Is it wireless? I have seen bent pins in controller plugs and bad buttons on controllers. Also Check your wire connections. Sounds like it could be a bad ground. Or the contactor (relay) is bad. It's not getting full power. (Duh)

[HeavyMetal]

Its hard to tell for me what the sound is in the video, if its gears grinding or motor struggling. Is it wireless? I have seen bent pins in controller plugs and bad buttons on controllers. Also Check your wire connections. Sounds like it could be a bad ground. Or the contactor (relay) is bad. It's not getting full power. (Duh)

the controller is wireless, but i have a wired controller it does the same thing with. the pins in the plug are perfect and they have to be hooked to a receiver the same as a wired remote anyway. ill recheck the grounds and power.

should there be a relay in-line somewhere on the winch wiring to the battery? i didnt install/wire it so i dont know whats there without going outside and investigating

maybe dizzy can expand, but he was here with a volt meter and i believe he was checking the solenoids, and when i was on the switch to spool or unspool, it would drop to 6 volts from 12.

[BRock89GW]

Going in my basement now to look at my 10,000 :-)

[DizzDizz]

I tested it with my power probe. All connections were fine. Had perfect ground and positive connections at all the solenoid a. But when he hits the button it's make the noise in the solenoid box. Almost like its a solenoid not contacting 100%. It's very odd, and the voyage drop is at every positive end of the solenoid (4 total).

[BRock89GW]

My best suggestion is pull the black plastc cover off where the winch controller plugs in and check all the terminals. I think that your main ground is dirty. Start there

[BRock89GW]

Well now that Diz chimed in that changes things. May be an internal motor short. Do all cables have voltage when the switch is in spool or un-spool?

[DizzDizz]

Yes, they do. They all get twelve then down to six.

[hoggie101]

Is it under warranty? If not bring it to my house and well pull it apart and look at the windings

[HeavyMetal]

Is it under warranty? If not bring it to my house and well pull it apart and look at the windings

I got the winch through a promo deal with Warn direct so I am sure they would take care of it eventually, but the process of removing the winch and shipping something that ridiculous back to warn is a huge hassle im not terribly interested in doing.

i'd happily bring it by your place

warn tech told me this last year

12v solenoids take approx 10volts to engage, it less that 10v, the solenoids will just rattle like you described. Have you had the battery tested?

obviously my battery is fine, so i suppose its a matter of the ground or power, some disconnect there

[ct67_72]

You should voltage drop test the power and ground cables to see if one is bad. That sounds like a solenoid trying to operate at low voltage. The contact is jumping back and forth as it gains and loosed voltage.
Also you can try and use a set of good jumper cables and jump from a battery to the solenoid and see if it works.
This is all assuming that the noise is coming from the solenoid area and the voltage is low at the motor like you said.
Also can you feel the solenoids pulse when doing this?

[DizzDizz]

Wills actual winch body is actually located separately from the solenoid box. So were positive that its in the electrical box. We also can't get the black box off, due to one screw being screwed in from the bottom and the head of it against the bumper of the jeep. I had to pry it back to test the solenoids.