Winch arming switch blowing fuses all of a sudden

[Hayes]

I wired in a winch arming switch using a Warn solenoid and a Toyota fog lamp switch.

I tapped into the hot wire that feeds my cd player to wire the switch, and the solenoid itself is in a high current circuit directly between the battery and the winch.

I HAVE run the winch though this setup, and everything has worked perfectly since installed several months ago.

Yesterday, after letting my 3-year old play in the cab, the 15A cigarette lighter fuse blew, killing my stereo, clock, cig lighter, and winch switch. After installing a new fuse, I turned off my stereo, unplugged the cigarette lighter, and flipped my arming switch. It activated the solenoid for about 5 or 10 seconds and then blew the fuse. I don't know if my son could have "done something," or if something has malfunctioned and is drawing too many amps.

I'm not sure where to start with troubleshooting. Any ideas?

Hayes

 

[Hayes]

Bump.

Sorry.

 

[dfmorse]

Hayes;

With seeing a schematic, I couldn't be too sure, but your tap into said wire may be shorting somewhere. The fuse that u blew may have also blown the cig internal fuse. The warn solenoid pulls approx 3amps on activation, so a short in your wiring is a very real prospect. If the cig fuse (internal) is blown u will have to remove lighter and fix manually.

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[Hayes]

Thanks. I didn't realize there was a cig fuse.

I'll check my dash wiring before I pull the solenoid.

Hayes

 

[Arya Ebrahimi]

Are you saying that you're running all those accessories off of one 15amp fuse? I would think that you might want to diversify your wiring a bit to spread the load.

Ary

 

[Hayes]

Turned out to be the solenoid. Six States Distributors tested it and gave me another one free of charge.

Ary, the only thing I added to that circuit was the winch solenoid. I don't know what circuit the factory stereo runs on, but my deck has run fine on that circuit with no problems.

Nevertheless, I rewired the new solenoid into its own circuit with a 30 Amp fuse inline under the hood. The only drawback is that is no longer switched to the ignitition key.

Hayes

 

[Mickldo]

Do FZJ80s come with a "power outlet" box in the engine bay? My HZJ80 has one and I've wired all the circuits that I want switched by either the acc or ign to this box. Very handy for neat aftermarket accesory wiring.

 

[Hayes]

Good question.
I'll have to look around a little closer.

What does your power outlet box look like?

Hayes

 

[dfmorse]

US FZJ80'S do not have the ACC power out let under the hood; only the rest of the world gets that much needed wiring. I had to build my own.

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[Mickldo]

The power outlet box is roughly 3" square. Under the black plastic cover is four screw terminals for attaching accesory wiring. There is battery +, accesory, ignition and earth terminals. All these terminals are fused and have very heavy cabling running to each. About the only thing I think would improve this set up would be provision for relays to be mounted easily and neatly nearby. This box is excellent for wiring up accesories neatly.