After attempting to install this old trailer winch I had on our car trailer and doing a test only to find out the thing had a bad solenoid, I placed an order for a replacement unit. What I got wasn't the exact same unit as the old solenoid, but close enough to work. The solenoids on the winch have a dual set of contacts, since the machine has to be able to reverse. I had already removed the cover on the winch and had to fight to reassemble the winch body to where it would work. The cover was trimmed down some to allow for it to just snap back on over the internals without having to break down the winch again. First thing is first, pulling the old solenoid out. I was able to remove the cables from one side of the solenoid, as well as the two screws holding the solenoid to the winch body. Allowing me to pull the old solenoid up, I was able to mount the new solenoid and hook up those cables I just removed. Once this was done, I was able to disconnect the cables and bus bar from the other side of the solenoid in order to hook that stuff up to our new solenoid. Because the new solenoid was slightly smaller than the old unit, the bus bar that was on the old unit had to have a new hole drilled to allow the bar to fit the contacts on the new solenoid that were more narrowly spaced. Once the new hole was drilled, I was able to get everything reassembled and secured on the winch body. The test was successful on the winch, reeling in both directions. All this with a compromised winch control. The buttons are dry rotted and brittle but still enough to allow the device to work. I will have to replace this control assembly as it won't be long before this thing pisses me off with its inability to just work effortlessly in the field. That means back to the interwebs to see if I can find a replacement unit, or at least something that I could splice into the cable going to our winch. The control is pretty simple, just three wires, two power lines and a ground wire to activate either solenoid so I could probably get away with damn near anything in this case. Along with the control switch, the next order of business will be to get some grade 8 bolts, nuts and washers in order to secure this winch to the mounts that I welded up on the trailer a while back. I'll also have to source an extra battery that I can use whenever I do need to use the trailer for a car pull. I kind of want to set things up to do a test just to confirm that the thing will work like its supposed to. I need to make sure that the bolts will hold, along with my angle iron mounting setup. Last thing I need is to have the winch snatch itself off while in the field then I'm having to scramble to use other winches to pull a car onto the trailer.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
May 2023
|