Warn M8000 winch sparking to ground

RockinXJ

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2009
Location
Lexington NC
So I just wired up and installed my new to me Warn M8000 I bought over the winter. The winch operates both in and out, but the motor is getting hot, and is arcing light sparks to the winch mount and jeep grille. I also noticed some smoke coming from under the winch motor. All cables are tight, and is grounded using the factory warn cables directly to battery. Any thoughts?

Control box is clamped directly to motor using SS hose clamps, not the flimsy bracket warn provides. That would not cause a problem would it?
 
Are the solenoids grounded?
 
Yes, the small black wire from the solenoid box is bolted to the same hole as the long ground lead on the winch motor going up to the battery
 
catfishblues said:
Sounds like your ground sucks. Pics of the setup?
Click to expand...

Yeah, my head keeps coming back to bad ground... but without seeing it...?

Easy test to see if there's a bad connection or a wire gone bad: run a set of jumper cables back to the battery in parallel with the winch power cables. See if that makes any difference.
 
Pretty sure the problem lies within the solenoid box being connected directly to the winch motor. Took my hose clamps that were holding it together off, and no sparks.
Guess i will have to find some rubber and isolate the two.

Anyone else seen this?
 

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Check that the clamp was not rubbing the post on the motor. We have saw more than one brand new install have arc issues if not very carefully when mounting the solenoid box. The area is not forgiving and is cramped. My guess is motor lead getting a ground through clamp. Did this occur in both directions? One? Or regardless of engaging solinoids and winch?
 
Have also seen brackets rub post. I worked for a place that almost every other vehicle had at least one winch☺. And most of them worn out from lack of use.
 
Just for anyone else who might reference this post for a similar issue, I found the fix. Somehow or for some reason the solenoid box clamped directly to the motor was creating a ground issue. I resolved the problem with some "shower liner" I picked up from Lowes. It is a rubber liner I cut a strip as wide as the hose clamp, and isolated the box from the motor. Problem fixed!
 

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Good fix, but you still have a underlying problem. Many of Warns winches mount the solenoids in this fashion. Did you pop the cover and check the wiring in it. I would hate to see you lose a winch or worse.
 
I did have the solenoid cover off, as I had to flip the box so the "W" was not an M on the cover. I checked all connections to make sure they were tight. You are thinking something is grounded under the cover that should not be?

I noticed the winch was sluggish when spark / arcing. After my fix or the box loose from where I mounted it, it acts much faster. I assumed it wasn't happy with the ground issue and this was making it sluggish.

I have not put it under a load, but did pull all the cable off and re spool to get the cable out of a bind. Everything works fine....
 
I can see the sluggish part as it was not getting full current. It was finding ground, sparks. I just believe the issue still survives since every winch with that type of "pack" and bracket was designed so it could mount directly to the motor. The pack should have a small ground and eylet. Somebody I think already spoke about it. It goes to the motor housing which all grounds to the winch body and then to chasis via connection of cable. The little ground is for the pack. If it was "looking" for a ground something isn't happy.
I just don't want, you to find it via smoke.
A poor ground anywhere down stream will cause it to look else where. Make sure all grounds even the winch and cable mounts have bare clean surfaces to connect. I have also seen a mount for negative cable under a powder coated plate not be sufficient. This is why they go in the leg of some models housing. Not just on mounting bolt to housing. Used corroded mounting bolts can be poor connectors so copper needs to touch bare housing and I always spray protecting battery products on winch wiring and dielectric grease in the boots.
 
A voltage drop test is the most efficient way to locate a bad ground! Even if the issue is currently fixed I think I'd do a couple voltage drops across the ground back to the chassis just to verify!
 
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