wiring help???

[83ChevyK5Blazer]

ok so i picked up a old warn bellevue winch the other day, and none of the original controls were with it so im making my own. my problem is with wiring the solenoid, how do you do it, im using a ford starter solenoid, and yes i do know they arent rated for continuos duty.

thnaks,
cody

 

[Fordum]

Not familiar with that model, but they all wire one of two ways. If you have 3 posts, you cannot do it with one solenoid.
There is a schematic on here somewhere I posted. I will see if I can't find it and post the link.

 

[83ChevyK5Blazer]

it is just one post on the motor, there is no power out yet....

 

[Fordum]

OK, if its only got one post, then all you have is power in, no reverse. In that case, just wire the solenoid so that it puts positive battery voltage to that one post when you want it to pull.
Make sure you use really big wire, and make sure the winch frame is well grounded.
In some cases it does not hurt to run a heavy ground wire from the winch frame to the negative terminal of the battery.

 

[Fordum]

Oh Fart!
I know what winch that is now!
Its the old cable operated Warn.

Yep, just hook the solenoid up so that it connects the winch motor post to the battery post and you are in business.
Couple of things to note. The clutch is that lever on the side. You move it one way to engage the gears and the other to free wheel.
Its a spur gear type, which means there is no locking action when you turn it off.
That is what that brake lever is for.

Originally it had a three cable control. One was the clutch, one was the brake, it had a twist lock function, and the other worked a big honking knife switch to supply power to the winch.
The power and clutch are not a biggie. But you might want to rig a cable for the brake if it has any liner left on it.
A good strong heavy duty throttle cable like NAPA sells should work.

Not only will it stop you from rolling back if you turn the winch off on a slope, but it can save your winch motor.
Those are geared WAY down. If you hook the cable to something strong, and it pulls fast, it will spin the motor backwards.
Say its geared 500 to 1. If you pull the spool at 10 rpm, you will be spinning that motor at 5000 rpm.
I have seen the windings in the armature slung out that way.

Some guys who had one of my winches were fooling around in the parking lot one day. The guy was bragging on his winch. So they decided to have a little contest.

They hooked the back of his truck to a couple of other trucks to hold it.
Hooked the winch to the other guys truck about 80 feet away.

Then he tried to drive off while the other guy tried to winch him backwards.
No contest.
All the guy did was burn his tires while the winch pulled him backwards across the pavement.

All went well until the winch guy turned the winch off since he had won the contest.
But the other truck had not gotten off the gas yet. And they did not have the anti-reverse hooked up on the winch.

The heavy copper bus bars of the armature were embedded in the fields of the winch motor so tight that they could not get the armature out.
They just tossed the whole thing and bought new.

 

[83ChevyK5Blazer]

the lining is in good shape and i was defineninently going to rig something for that, do you need to run a ground wire for the solenoid? it works fine with jumpercables to the winch motor but with a positve cable goin from the battery to the solenoid then winch, it wont spin when i jump the other two posts on the solenoid.

 

[Fordum]

I'm actually not being cute here, but it depends...
They make 3 or 4 versions of that solenoid.
If you have two small terminals on top, then I am pretty sure which one you have. I don't remember any of the oddballs having two terminals.

Its 3:30 in the morning here, so I may be a little off, but here goes.

The terminals should be labeled S and I.

You need to ground the mounting foot and hook battery positive to the S terminal to get it to pull in.

The I terminal is the ballast resistor bypass for point system engines which have ballast resistors.

The solenoid applies full positive battery voltage to the I terminal when it powers up.
You will not need this for the winch.

 

[Fordum]

BTW, I have not seen one of these in years, but they still make them.

Its a Ford style solenoid with a black button sticking out of the "face" of it. Its used to manually push the solenoid in.

Sounds like a great idea for having an under-hood way to turn the winch on to reel up the cable when you are alone.
Just open the hood, press the button, and as long as you have it pressed, the winch reels in.

DO NOT do that!!
Bad things will happen!!

That button is physically attached to the big copper washer that shorts across the two terminals when you turn the solenoid on.
If you push it in, you are pushing the washer in and making contact. You are not actually turning the solenoid on.

The problem comes in because you are switching several hundred amps.
When you turn the solenoid on, it Slams that washer down on those contacts in milliseconds.
If there is a little rough place that makes contact before the main part, it does not matter because of the force and speed it hits with.

When you push the button, you are lightly and slowly making contact.
Which means as the high points touch, they overload and melt.
As you continue to push in, more and more surface area touches until enough is touching to run the winch.

But you have had lots of little arcs in the meantime.

Sooner or later, those arcs are going to cause those contacts to weld together. And you cannot pull out on the little button.

So, you now have to figure out how to disconnect the battery cable before the winch winds up tight and breaks something.
Because there is no turning that thing off.

Trust me, I know.......