M12 Problems (1 Viewer)

[florida95fzj]

Hello, I was hoping someone could help sanity check my troubleshooting on this winch.

It is a M12000 that is supposed to be manufactured in the past few years. It has a Warn branded Albright contactor (814000 A1) with a 9/19 date on it.

The remote causes the contactor to click (in and out) but the motor doesn't engage.

I jumped A and F1 on the motor, tried to power the motor directly on F2, and got significant sparking. I didn't try power on F1.

With everything disconnected, I always have continuity between the motor's ground and the motor's A terminal. I also have constant continuity between the contactor's A terminal and the contactor's F2 terminal. No other continuity between other terminals when disconnected / not powered.

With power on the contactor and the remote pressed, I could only get 12V to one of the bottom terminals but I forgot to write down which one.

Not sure if it's relevant but for some reason the remote's #3 black ground wire was connected to the motor's F2 terminal when I got it. I had to relocate that wire to the motor's ground terminal so that the contactor would click in both directions. It would previously click in one direction and buzz in the other. Not sure if they burned something out trying to fix this in the past.

Am I on track to think I have a short somewhere in the motor and the contactor is also bad?

Appreciate any pointers here. This is the first winch I've had to troubleshoot.

 

[gnob]

what wire diagram are you using ?
which remote setup? (3 wire, 5 wire, etc)

immediately it sounds like a short in the motor. ive found it pretty common for the post to case isolators to fail.
not 100% clear on what is going on with the contactor.
of the three remote wires(on the contactor) the center should go to ground.
im pretty certain there should be no continuity among the large contactor terminals with no power applied.

 

[florida95fzj]

what wire diagram are you using ?
which remote setup? (3 wire, 5 wire, etc)

immediately it sounds like a short in the motor. ive found it pretty common for the post to case isolators to fail.
not 100% clear on what is going on with the contactor.
of the three remote wires(on the contactor) the center should go to ground.
im pretty certain there should be no continuity among the large contactor terminals with no power applied.

I have the 5 wire remote and the pins match this diagram I attached here.

The nuts/terminals on the motor have quite a bit of play.

I am going to re-test that contactor later on today. It's seems pretty odd to me a relatively new sealed contactor would be bad.

Would this be the kind of job where I open the motor up and potentially fix it? or I am looking at a new motor?

 

[gnob]

if you can source new isolators its not a big deal. but the terminals should not be slopping around in the case.
do you have an auto electric rebuilder nearby? golf cart repair?

 

[florida95fzj]

I should have realized there would need to be some kind of isolator between the nut the motor case. I thought I had a rusty washer behind that nut with the shoulder but that wouldn't make any sense.

I also didn't test continuity between the metal housing of the motor and the positive terminals.

I'll see if the terminals are moving or if its just the hardware attached to it.

I don't know of a shop but I imagine I can find one.

Thanks

 

[florida95fzj]

So the armature terminal on the motor is broken.

The contactor has some serious problems unfortunately.

It only completes the circuit to the F2 terminal. No current to F1 or A. I broke out the test light to be sure and cycled the remote while checking each of the output terminals.

The contactor's top left and right spade terminals does get power for in and out from the remote. The middle/brown is a ground from what I can tell.

 

[florida95fzj]

So, now I learned what water inside these motors can do. Not to mention the terminal stud being broken off.

I haven't torn open the gear side yet.

 

[florida95fzj]

Does anyone know if Warn publishes a service manual for these winches? I am curious if I will information on exactly what should be greased in the gear box. Also hoping to find torque specs, particularly for the electrical connections.

I emailed cs@warn.com but not sure if that is correct.

edit: i searched here and only found a PDF for the military variant of the 12000.

 

[gnob]

Does anyone know if Warn publishes a service manual for these winches? I am curious if I will information on exactly what should be greased in the gear box. Also hoping to find torque specs, particularly for the electrical connections.

I emailed cs@warn.com but not sure if that is correct.

edit: i searched here and only found a PDF for the military variant of the 12000.

warn has all the parts pdf info on their site.
just scroll down from the winch.
may or may not show torque.

M12 12V Heavyweight Winch - 17801

If you’re looking for heavy duty winches, these are it. Big torque, 12,000 lbs. of pulling power, and fast no-load retrieval speed gives the M12 (12V) a great combination of heavy-duty capacity and high performance.

www.warn.com