macgyver35

I picked up a lightly used Smittybily XRC-8 Comp winch from a family member, and I wanted to use it on my 2011 Grand Cherokee.

The winch is mounted. The stock cables were only 12"-18" long, which would have required that the solenoid box either be mounted low behind the bumper, or behind the grill, where it really didn't fit well.

I bought some high quality 4 gauge welding wire and copper crimp connectors and made my own cables so that I could relocate the solenoid (sans factory plastic housing) up under the hood near the firewall.

When I try to use the winch, it seems to activate in forward and reverse, however, I have two big problems.

1) The solenoid clicks rapidly during use. Around 4-6 times per second in one direction, and about 3-5 times per second in the other direction. I have confirmed that the winch drum is turning.

2) There is a small, maybe 16-18 gauge wire that runs from the side of the winch motor at terminal "a", to the solenoid, and if I'm reading my wiring diagrams correctly, is supposed to attach to terminal "3" on the solenoid. There is also a heavy ground cable that runs from that same "a" terminal on the motor, but just runs to ground. When trying to use the winch, that small gauge wire gets hot enough in just a few seconds to start melting the insulation.

It seems to me I either have something hooked up wrong (the Smittybilt wire diagrams are no help at all in reference to the actual solenoid terminals), or I have some fault/short in the solenoid.

Any guidance would be appreciated. Or if someone can point me to a much better technical wiring diagram, instead of the hand-drawn one supplied by Smittybilt), that would be great.

macgyver35

Okay, a little progress. Sorta...

I moved the smaller gauge motor ground wire to a chassis ground instead of to the solenoid ground ternminal, and no more melting wire.

And, I never would have guessed it considering all the heavy gauge grounding wires going to the solenoid, but it is required that the outside of the solenoid housing be grounded. Since I attached my fabricated solenoid mounting bracket to plastic panels near the firewall, it wasn't grounded. Just screwing around, I used a temp jumper wire to ground the solenoid housing and the rapid clicking went away.

Now the problem I have is that the solenoid gets stuck. When I use the remote to activate "out", it keeps running even after I let the button go, and I have to disconnect the main positive cable to get it to stop. Once it is stopped, I can hook the cable back up and it sits quietly. I can use the remote "in" as many times as I want without issue. But as soon as I try "out again, it get stuck and just keeps running.

I took the solenoid apart and it's clean and shiny as a new penny inside, so I'm not sure what to make of things now...

mwxj

Sounds like a short on the positive "out" side, or just a bad solenoid(s).

macgyver35

I got a wiring diagrams form tech support at Smittybilt. My wires were all in the correct place, but it still wouldn't work. It ended up being a bad solenoid.