finnaly figured it out

[Marco]

So ive been fighting with a CJ for a year trying to figure out what keeps killing the battery and making it almost impossible to start unless its boosted. I replaced the cap and rotor and plugs/wires coil battery cables etc.still barely turns over. So I took the winch off the battery just for fun and came back two weeks later and she fired right up (cold out too). so the question is why would the winch kill the battery? it works perfectly fine. If i put the winch back on it wont start after 10 mins.  thanks for any ideas! B

[w squared]

Sounds like a dead short somewhere in your winch wiring or the winch itself.

[JackstandJohnny]

open solenoid maybe?
might wanna check your winch now; this happend (or a version of this) and it cooked my winch and battery)

[Immortal]

Wouldn't a N.O. solenoid be "open" anyways? Didn't your solenoid stick shut John?

[JackstandJohnny]

mine was open because the controller told it to be.......

[w squared]

Yeah...but an stuck solenoid would kill off his battery super-fast (winch at stall load) and cook the motor pretty fast too...and (as much as I hate to say it) I think that Trev is right - an solenoid stuck in the open position will not allow current to flow. I think your solenoid stuck closed, buddy.

This sounds like a relatively slow drain, located within the winch or it's wiring.

One question for ya Marco...does the winch work?

[Marco]

ya it works i just spooled a new cable onto it. im going to just put it back on with an ameter around individual wires to find the draw i spose.thanks all.

[w squared]

Depending on what the amount of resistance is in the dead short, you may or may not have much luck with the ammeter...but that's where I'd start too!