# Warn winch help



## beavel

Hey guys been a while since I have been on here been really busy wit work and home renos. I just got my new cable for my warn xt25 but my question is this. The two wires going to the winch one yellow and one blue. Are they both 12 volt? Right now both of my wires are showing 12 volts on the ply meter when engaging the in or out switchfor the winch. Should the blue wire be my ground? I am thinking the little power block has shorted out for the winch so before I ground my blue wire on the chasis I figured I would ask here first. Hope I explained it well enough


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## 1bigforeman

The blue and yellow from the winch go the contactor switch. Not ground. There will also be a red and a black that go from the battery to the contactor as well. Then, the small 2 wires go to the rocker switch. The contactor does all of the work. All it does, is give the motor of the winch 12 volts in one direction for out and reverses the polarity for in.


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## beavel

Thanks for the reply. I am not sure whats up with the ole girl then, everything on the meter shows it getting the 12Volts when the switch is pressed, so I assume something inside the winch has come loose or burnt out. It worked fine the last time I used it and now this just pops up out of no where.


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## IBBruin

If you put your meter leads on the two posts that go into the winch and get 12 volts and the winch doesn't move, you've got internal problems in the winch.


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## 1bigforeman

Yep, You should have 12 volts at the 2 posts (Blue and Yellow) at the winch. When you hit the rocker switch in the other direction, you should have -12 volts. If you don't, disconnect those 2 wires from the winch and put some jumper cables from a battery straight to those 2 posts and it should move. Swap the cables to opposite posts and it should go in the other direction. That will tell you if it's the winch or something else.


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## brutematt750

K guys I really need some help, the winch will spool out but when u try to reel in it makes a bad ticking noise. I've been wiggling the free spool switch and I can get it to go in about half a turn at a time...I'm confused


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## Waddaman

Don't use the free spool on warn's, they seriously suck, and when they screw up you gotta take apart the winch to fix it usually. Theres a little triangle-like piece that the free spool turns, and it moves up in plastic (yes, weak plastic) and pushes the rod that turns the winch off the gears and allows it to spin.


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