Superwinch Talon 12.5 Problem

Gnarvan · 02-03-2012, 02:40 PM

During the process of installing the synthetic rope on my days old Superwinch Talon 12.5 SR it decided to stop working. I installed the aux battery this morning to power the winch. After the battery install I was in the middle of installing the winchline under pressure when it stopped working in the winch in mode. It will still winch out but all I get is a solanoid click when I try to winch in.

I called Thor at Viking offroad and he got me intouch with tech support at Superwinch. I talked to Jason there for several minutes. He seemed to think one of the motor brushes was hung up and not making full contact with the armature. I've tried the rubber mallet on the motor method of resetting the brush. Didn't work.

Has anyone been inside one of these winch motors to check out the brushes before? After spending the time installing the winch I don't really feel like pulling it back out, but it looks like I'm going to have to. Before I open up the guts on this thing I was hoping someone might have some pointers on helping me save time and grief getting to the brushes.

I think the brush that contacts the winch in side of the system popped up and came back in a little crooked when I used the reverse to unspool a little line.

I wish the winch worked as good as it looks. I also mounted the Hella 500 FF fog lights this morning. I was going to wire them in this afternoon but it looks like I'll be going a few rounds with the winch instead.

Gnarvan · 02-03-2012, 05:13 PM

I did a little trouble shooting with a continuity tester and am pretty convinced I have a solenoid issue. I'm not getting any power out of the solenoid to any motor terminals when I press the winch in button on the remote. It makes a loud click then nuthin. I get power out of the solenoid when I press the winch out button.

I'm not real sure how this motor is set up to run in two directions. I have power to all three positive terminals on the motor when I select winch out. I would have thought only two of the 3 would have become hot in either direction. Alternating which 2 out of 3 are hot depending on which direction it spooled

Does anyone know how these motors decide which direction to run?

Bones_GSXR · 02-04-2012, 04:42 AM

The Solenoid should be the same for both in and out. Swap the wires and see if it works. Easy trouble shoot. Then you know what you need to order.

Gnarvan · 02-04-2012, 02:33 PM

I dug a little deeper into the winch problem today. First I disconnected all the wires from the solenoid except the direct from the battery lead and tested the solenoid. The solenoid has 4 posts on it. As far as I can tell the solenoid is acting normal with no wires hooked to the motor. When line in is selected post B becomes hot. When line out is selected post C becomes hot.

Once I connect everything back up it only runs in line out mode. In line out mode post C is hot and post B stays neutral. When I select line in mode all of the terminals become hot and the motor does not spin. Only one of the two directional leads should be hot at a time. In line in mode both of the directional leads are hot. To me this is an indication something is shorting out inside the motor allowing current to pass back through both the line in and line out leads.

I pulled the winch and took the end cap and housing off. There was nothing in there screaming foul to me so I put it all back together being careful to reset the brushes in the proper position.

I'm not going to reinstall the winch till I talk to superwinch on Monday and see if they have any words of wisdom for me.

I couldn't swap the two directional leads due to the length of each lead. There wasn't enough freeplay in the cables to cross them over.

This is a shot of the solenoid and winch motor wiring. The lead from the solenoid to the winch motor on picture right is from post C or the line out side. The longer lead that loops out to picture left is from post B or the line in lead. Post A on the solenoid is the direct to battery lead and post D is the short cable whose function is a mystery to me. The ground cable is on the bottom of the motor housing and you can't see it in the picture.

Bones_GSXR · 02-05-2012, 12:34 AM

The Brushes sould be under the two silver Torx caps that you can see in the photo. you might try sliding brushes up and checking them as Superwinch wanted you to do. You could also swap the cables at the motor instead of the Solenoid.

**Gooseberry** · 02-05-2012, 08:42 AM

dont losen those torx heads they hold the armature in Im pretty sure.

can the control relay be what your hearing and its not pulling in the solenoid? .ya I its a long shot but you never know.
wiring diagram. http://mediacdn.shopatron.com/media/mfg ... e14510.pdf

Gnarvan · 02-05-2012, 01:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gooseberry

dont losen those torx heads they hold the armature in Im pretty sure.

Jason at Superwinch told me not to touch the torx heads. The torx heads do hold the armature. The brushes are located on the end cap. I confirmed all this when I pulled the motor apart yesterday afternoon.

Since the winch was out I used the elbow room to mount the wiring components for the lights and other accessories. I mounted a positive bus, negative bus, relay panel and fuse panel inside the winch box in the bumper.

I'm going to wait till I talk to Jason at Superwinch before I re-install the winch and test it.

This is a shot of the wiring components for the lights

Winch sitting in the box next to the light components

witoke · 02-05-2012, 09:37 PM

Very neat wiring on the winch. Nicely done.

Gnarvan · 02-05-2012, 10:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by witoke

Very neat wiring on the winch. Nicely done.

Thanks, I try.

I actually like wiring projects. Right now I've got a bad case of tool envy. Greg's wire crimper sure looks good in my garage. I'll probably hang on to it till I get the winch problem sorted out.

Gnarvan · 02-13-2012, 04:27 PM

A quick update on the winch problem. After working with Jason at Superwinch we decided the problem is in the Solenoid. He shipped a new one and I should have it in a few days.

The trouble shooting process took a little longer than I liked but that's due to the game of phone tag Jason and I played. It's a bummer I got a bad solenoid to start with but in the long run it's probably a good thing. Working with the tech's at Superwinch during the trouble shooting process I was able to get a better understanding of how the electronics of the winch work. If something stops working out in the boonies I know how to trouble shoot it and jump the motor bypassing all the electronic stuff.