[jungas]

Hey guys I have put in my 6000Lb winch on the weekend but when i hit the remote to wind in its causing some of the smaller earth wires back to the body in the engine bay to start smoking ???

I still only have the original alternator on which I plan to upgrade soon but this is a weird problem I have never come across after putting winches onto other 4WD's....... ??

My only thoughts are that somehow it it trying to pull current through these smaller wires ??

[royce]

what do you mean by small wires back to teh body? fromteh original suzuki wiring or the winch wiring?

is the body of the winch earthed? do you have a decent earth from teh winch to the battery? do you have a decent earth from the battery to the body?

something is earthing through something it shouldnt be, triple check everything

[jungas]

Yes it smoking the original earth wires from various spots around the engine.

Winch is bolted onto a plate welded off to the body so it would be earthed, there is the proper 0 gauge wire (one that comes with winch) which is running both from the positive and negative terminals of the battery to the winch.

There is also a nice thick earth strap running from the battery to the body..... however I'm getting the feeling this may be where the problem is ?, connection points may be corroded and not getting a decent connection.

[royce]

unless you fitted that earth to teh body treat it as suss

where did you put the earth cable on teh winch? sounds like the winch is earthing motor - chassis - block - battery, keep it up youll lose your throttle and clutch cables soon

[lump_a_charcoal]

Run an earth from the winch to the Battery.

[Ben_Sierra]

Check all your earth connectiions are properly earthed with a meter. If any of them are sus then fix them up. Where you've earthed to the body make sure you've got a good earth i.e. there's no paint or dirt or grease between the connector and the body...

And in the meantime unti its fixed don't use the winch or you may end up setting fire to your car...

[CairnsZook]

Slight hijack... (noob winch wiring)

I've just picked up an isolator for my winch. Should I be isolating the positive or negative cable? And should I be running a fuse or some sort of breaker?

[royce]

positive before the solenoids, close to the battery would be good

I dont nsee the need for any type of fuse

[jungas]

lump_a_charcoal wrote:

Run an earth from the winch to the Battery.

the earth from the winch runs directly from the winch to the battery

[lump_a_charcoal]

What size cable is it?

[bagnkat]

Have you pulled the cover off the solenoid box to have a look? It's possible that the high current output side of the solenoid is touching/brushing against your signal earth. If this were the case, it would only smoke as you described ie: when you use the remote. However, it would probably only do this for one direction only, in or out.

[jungas]

bagnkat wrote:

Have you pulled the cover off the solenoid box to have a look? It's possible that the high current output side of the solenoid is touching/brushing against your signal earth. If this were the case, it would only smoke as you described ie: when you use the remote. However, it would probably only do this for one direction only, in or out.

Your description is spot on..... it only smokes when spooling in and spools out with no probs, also i was using the remote control and not the wired remote...

Will pull the cover off again and check this out

[bagnkat]

So...

What was it?