Winch install stuff up help please

[Boofy1]

Hi guys
I installed a dominater extreme winch into my NT Pajero today it took me all day getting in behind my TJM bullbar. I wired it up and in my haste and excitement forgot to connect the negative to the battery . I grabbed the controller and started it up it ran for 20 seconds or so . I heard something blow around the motor and a very small puff of smoke then dead. It’s a $460 winch my question is does anyone know what I may have done to it and is it repairable ?
Thanx in advance guys

[Jasonmc73]

Hi guys
I installed a dominater extreme winch into my NT Pajero today it took me all day getting in behind my TJM bullbar. I wired it up and in my haste and excitement forgot to connect the negative to the battery . I grabbed the controller and started it up it ran for 20 seconds or so . I heard something blow around the motor and a very small puff of smoke then dead. It’s a $460 winch my question is does anyone know what I may have done to it and is it repairable ?
Thanx in advance guys

One thing i've learnt with electrics.

Once you let all the smoke out it is very difficult to put it all back in again

My suggestion would be take a deep breath, obtain your self a multimeter Jaycar have them for $10ish.
Start tracing the voltage starting at the battery & work your way to the winch motor.

If you have voltage all the way to winch motor as should be when solanoid is activated then you may have a problem.

[rgrubby]

Hi guys
I installed a dominater extreme winch into my NT Pajero today it took me all day getting in behind my TJM bullbar. I wired it up and in my haste and excitement forgot to connect the negative to the battery . I grabbed the controller and started it up it ran for 20 seconds or so . I heard something blow around the motor and a very small puff of smoke then dead. It’s a $460 winch my question is does anyone know what I may have done to it and is it repairable ?
Thanx in advance guys

It may have had a negative path via the mounting points, but due to paint etc the connection was poor and could possibly have had that result. Did you inspect it to try and spot any burn marks? After that happened, did you connect the neg lead to the battery and try it?

[Morville]

Hi guys
I installed a dominater extreme winch into my NT Pajero today it took me all day getting in behind my TJM bullbar. I wired it up and in my haste and excitement forgot to connect the negative to the battery . I grabbed the controller and started it up it ran for 20 seconds or so . I heard something blow around the motor and a very small puff of smoke then dead. It’s a $460 winch my question is does anyone know what I may have done to it and is it repairable ?
Thanx in advance guys

If the negative terminal was not connected to the battery where did the power come from? An auxiliary battery and through an accessory?
Peter

[Boofy1]

Hi mate the positive terminal was hooked up

[disco stu]

Morville is wondering how the negative path got to the winch from the battery with only positive hooked up.

My thinking is similar to what the others here have said. If you tried to start your car with only one battery terminal connected nothing would happen, given one terminal is off. But nothing would break either.

For it to work at all with no negative lead connected means there was some path from negative side of battery into the winch, likely through the mounting points from the body of the car. Being a very high current load, it would likely have cause a lot of heat where the connection wasn't real good causing the pop and smoke, but I can't see how it would blow something inside the winch or in the solenoid, unless you've wired things up wrong.....but it worked alright initially so that is a little doubtful.

Have you tried it with the negative lead hooked up properly to the battery?

[Morville]

If the negative terminal was not connected to the battery where did the power come from? An auxiliary battery and through an accessory?
Peter

I was thinking of the main battery negative terminal that was not connected, be hence the negative coming from an aux battery. It may have been the winch negative lead not connected. Which was it?
Peter

[Kingbrown]

Drawing on memory, they provide a light gauge wire that connects the solenoid box to the body of the winch.

If the winch wasn't electrically connected to the bullbar (unlikely, but possible) while the solenoid box was, then the small wire would be carrying the winch current and would likely burn out.

As others have suggested, look for obvious signs of overheating or fusing in wires or connected parts.

I've also seen wiring pinched within the control box. Worth checking in there too.

[Boofy1]

Thanks for all the replies fellas.
There was no dual battery hook up.
Yes there is a small black wire that runs from the solenoid / control box to the negative terminal on the winch .
I didn’t try hooking up the primary negative and trying it as I didn’t want to damage it further the rest of the wiring was definitely hooked up correctly .
I’m going to try and hook it up tonight and give it another go thanx

[john pajero]

Electrical burns usually smell for quite some time. You could sniff around where you think the smoke and pop came from and try to hone in on what burned out.

Its worth a try, I've often located burned out components that way, never under the bonnet of a car though.

[Scrambler]

Thinking it through, the positive side of the circuit must be intact, and the motor itself. The negative side must be intact (since never connected.)

But something has burned out locally if it ran before and does not now.

This must be on the earth/negative side of the circuit.

It really can't be the mount.

I would be betting on the negative for the switch/control.

I would guess that it would be repairable, just a fair bit of trouble.

You will need to follow the light earth wire all the way back into the circuits and switches until you find where it fused.

Good luck :-S

[Boofy1]

Scrambler thanks so much for the info mate I am going to have another crack at it tomorrow. its an absolute nightmare getting in there the negative terminal is actually under the winch so everything has to come off again to gain access. In the scheme of things its a budget winch and the more research I do on them the more trouble people seem to have with them anyway. I have a back up plan in two weeks if I can't fix it myself. I have my car booked in 2 weeks for tough dog suspension if the winch is buggered I'm getting a 9500 ironman installed while suspension going on. Thanks for all the help guys

[Boofy1]

Hi guys an update today I pulled everything out again rewired and repaired small black earth wire running from control box to winch and all good it’s up and running thanks again for all your help

[disco stu]

Good to hear you got it sorted. I didn't think it would be overly difficult to find the issue