Older warn winch ground?

[cruiseroutfit]

Kurt,
You are quickly moving up the list as the shop I call for anything cruiser related these days! I will look at the lengths I need and may have to be the first cable customer. I am still figuring out where to put the battery disconnect switch though. I leave the cruiser sit quite often and still think disconnection may be my answer. Sort of like my RV, I simply hit the disconnect switch and she doesn't drain the battery as it sits. Plus those drag strip cars have one...so I need one!

Goebs

Cool, you can't see in the picture, but I have a huge disconnect connector on the leads heading to the winch, that way I can disconnect the winch for removal, and I can plug other accessories into the aux. power (jumper cables, 120V power supplies, etc). I will also look into some good power switching parts...

 

[1Fine40]

Maybe a thread hijack here, but why are the side posts on an Optima NG for a winch connection?? I was under the impression they were the same as the top posts....?

 

[woody]

side posts on "all" batteries are fed via the raised flat spot across the top of the battery, feeding from the top posts. Notorious for not handling large current loads, mostly hard winching. For the minor extra effort, connecting the winch to the top studs and the starter to the side is worthwhile peace of mind.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

... Notorious for not handling large current loads, mostly hard winching. ....

Yup, I've seen many a batteries that had litterally "melted" the side terminals out of the plastic... Always use the top posts.

 

[1Fine40]

Yup, I've seen many a batteries that had litterally "melted" the side terminals out of the plastic... Always use the top posts.

OUCH! I'll definitely want to avoid that.....must change things this weekend! Thanks and Cheers!

 

[Lizrd]

Back to your symptom...

The sparking and stinking part... I went thru that a couple weeks ago when I had to winch extensively to recover the Lizrd after popping something between engine and tranny (will know what it was on Saturday).
When it was over, the winch maotor was alomost dead, only pulled very weakly. Roger Theurer took the motor off and carried it to his electric motor expert shop in Manchester, TN, and $30 later I'm good as new!
It turns out that two of the brushes/springs were rusty, and not in contact with the armauture (the spark part) and the other pair were doing all the work (the stink and melt insulation part) and were thus burned to a crisp!
The armature survived - yay Warn!- so the repair was cheap.
I suggest you pull your motor and inspect the condition of the brushes and their contact surface.

Dave Safford
Nashville