Warn 8274 shorting?

[Sprockett]

Ok, got the new battery and got the winch hooked up finally. So, decided to make sure it was working. Throw the switch, winch turns for half a sec then clicks and stops. Hitting the switch again does nothing. So, I turn the drum a bit and try again, does the same thing, on for a sec then click and off...but this time I notice a flash of light. Uh oh.

One more time looking for light but this time she just keeps turning...however, as she's turning she throwing sparks and hesitating...now I can see where it's sparking. It sparking between the right side of the drum and the housing! See pic attached.

No, whats with the whole drum being energized? This was not an issue when it was on the Jeep and the winch has never even been removed from the winch plate since taking it off. If only got one wire, the 4 guage power wire so nothing was really changed installing it.

How do these things ground? I assume through the housing but it's shorting on the right side...I mean, that side of the housing is only connected to the left side by the drum and the winch plate.

[uriedog]

pull the cover off the selonoids. could be touching there. Or it could be shorting in the motor. But its got a better path to arc from by the drum and housing. Electricity is like water, takes path of least resistance.

If it has not been used in a while this can easily happen. I had a similar issue with mine

[oriontaco]

you should have a post that will accept a 5/16 ring lug, 4 awg from there to the battery.

But yes it does not sound like that is your problem. The motor may have a broken winding inside and is now touching the case. That is what is sounds like to me.

[Sprockett]

Thanks for the replies.

Doing some reading, a couple write-ups claims that the ground wire attachs to the motor via one of the mounting bolts...some poepl have even felt this wasn't good enough and welded on bolts to the motor housing for a better ground. My winch has no ground wire currently and must only be grouding through the housing to the bumper through the ground straps. I'm going to try to add a ground wire from the motor to the battery?

[Kroll]

Ground the winch to your ground cable, or very near it.
It is often not recommended to directly ground your winch via battery.
The battery often heats up faster this way.
Correct me if I am wrong.

[Sprockett]

Just went down to the parkade and ran 8 guage power wire from one of the motor mounting bolts directly to the negative post just to check. Solved everything. Planning to pick up some 4 guage and ground it permanently.

Is this true about the going directly to the negative post? I think I'd rather that then putting all the current through the high guage grounding straps?

[Kroll]

I did some surfing on the net after posting this.
The only real concern with grounding directly to the battery is the possibility of blowing off a small battery post (if the amperage load demand gets high).

The other side of the fence says grounding to a frame can cause extra resistance, therefore less available power for the winch to use.

[tacotaco]

Use the Ford starter solenoid to make contact with the battery. The solenoid is cheap and can act as a fuse if the amperage gets too high.