So this may or may not have been posted before, and some may make the silly mistake I made without reading/researching..... Apparently there's a "magic" ground on the solenoid box.
Slight back story (scroll down for the ***** to get to the point):
I've had a 9k HF winch sitting in a box destined for my FJ40 for quite some time (well over a year... I also had a 12k HF winch waiting over a year, which I sold about a year and a half ago).
I wanted to have something on the front of my 80 (1993 locked) that I could use and have a little more confidence if I go out on some trails this summer while the 40 sits.
I picked up a MetalTech 4x4 front tube bumper (minus the stinger) for my 80 and decided to finally unbox the winch.
I also ordered an LED light bar (this is important to the story).
Everything got mounted after the bracket was built for the light bar:
I then waited to wire the winch because I wanted to use an isolator switch (the circuit breaker pack that the HF winch came with left something to be desired). Also ordered some switches for the winch and the light bar.
The isolator switch, and switches, arrived, and wiring could commence.
Everything went great/smooth. Everything got tied in great.
One of the last wires I had was the ground for the LED light bar. The length of wire on the light bar was short, but more than long enough to reach around the winch area. There aren't a whole lot of place on a tube bumper, or that low on an 80, that could be a good spot for a small ground wire.
And I saw it.
"I'll just pull the small ground off of the solenoid box and tie the ground for the LED light bar into the same location".
And I removed the ground bolt on the solenoid box.
Went to install the bolt with both ground wires (the original solenoid wire, and the LED ground wire) and that's when I realized that there was nothing on the other end anymore inside the solenoid box.
For most, that probably isn't an ordeal. In an 80 with that bumper and that winch, there's almost zero tolerances between it, the body, and the cooling system.
In order to open the solenoid box... I would have to remove it from the winch. In order for me to remove it from the winch, I would have to remove the bumper from the truck. In order to do that, I had to remove basically 80% of the wiring that had just been done.
So on another weekend (when my son and Fiance were taking a nap) I decided to start the project - undo all the wiring for the light bar and winch (at least as little as needed) and pull the bumper, so that I could get to the solenoid box.
**************************************************************
I found out, once it was all apart - that the wire on the side of the solenoid box (which is all plastic) had a nut on the other end that wasn't a captured nut. When I removed the small ground wire on the outside of the solenoid box, I inadvertently disconnected the ground wire internal to the solenoid box. Without it, the winch doesn't work.
I decided to reverse how it was engineered, so that if I get stupid again and decide to use that as a ground location for something else, I can do so without consequence.
I ran a larger bolt from the inside of the box outward (with the internal ground connected), with a washer against the box externally. I then used a nut, spun on backwards, with a 2nd nut run in and the ground wire between them. So now the bolt is bolted to the box, and then a secondary nut retains the external ground:
In this photo, the ground wire is on the left side of the box, upper corner:
Another angle:
From the outside:
All works well again in the 80......
Slight back story (scroll down for the ***** to get to the point):
I've had a 9k HF winch sitting in a box destined for my FJ40 for quite some time (well over a year... I also had a 12k HF winch waiting over a year, which I sold about a year and a half ago).
I wanted to have something on the front of my 80 (1993 locked) that I could use and have a little more confidence if I go out on some trails this summer while the 40 sits.
I picked up a MetalTech 4x4 front tube bumper (minus the stinger) for my 80 and decided to finally unbox the winch.
I also ordered an LED light bar (this is important to the story).
Everything got mounted after the bracket was built for the light bar:
I then waited to wire the winch because I wanted to use an isolator switch (the circuit breaker pack that the HF winch came with left something to be desired). Also ordered some switches for the winch and the light bar.
The isolator switch, and switches, arrived, and wiring could commence.
Everything went great/smooth. Everything got tied in great.
One of the last wires I had was the ground for the LED light bar. The length of wire on the light bar was short, but more than long enough to reach around the winch area. There aren't a whole lot of place on a tube bumper, or that low on an 80, that could be a good spot for a small ground wire.
And I saw it.
"I'll just pull the small ground off of the solenoid box and tie the ground for the LED light bar into the same location".
And I removed the ground bolt on the solenoid box.
Went to install the bolt with both ground wires (the original solenoid wire, and the LED ground wire) and that's when I realized that there was nothing on the other end anymore inside the solenoid box.
For most, that probably isn't an ordeal. In an 80 with that bumper and that winch, there's almost zero tolerances between it, the body, and the cooling system.
In order to open the solenoid box... I would have to remove it from the winch. In order for me to remove it from the winch, I would have to remove the bumper from the truck. In order to do that, I had to remove basically 80% of the wiring that had just been done.
So on another weekend (when my son and Fiance were taking a nap) I decided to start the project - undo all the wiring for the light bar and winch (at least as little as needed) and pull the bumper, so that I could get to the solenoid box.
**************************************************************
I found out, once it was all apart - that the wire on the side of the solenoid box (which is all plastic) had a nut on the other end that wasn't a captured nut. When I removed the small ground wire on the outside of the solenoid box, I inadvertently disconnected the ground wire internal to the solenoid box. Without it, the winch doesn't work.
I decided to reverse how it was engineered, so that if I get stupid again and decide to use that as a ground location for something else, I can do so without consequence.
I ran a larger bolt from the inside of the box outward (with the internal ground connected), with a washer against the box externally. I then used a nut, spun on backwards, with a 2nd nut run in and the ground wire between them. So now the bolt is bolted to the box, and then a secondary nut retains the external ground:
In this photo, the ground wire is on the left side of the box, upper corner:
Another angle:
From the outside:
All works well again in the 80......
