I have a honda Rubicon 2001 and this weekend i was riding and my winch wires shorted out and blew up the battery in my quad. I put a new battery in and it now runs but the winch obvisouly does not work. I have a few questions.
1. why did'nt the fuse blow first if the wires were shorting out.
2. could i have ruined my alternator.

thanks for the help i apprectiate it.

98 polaris 400 sport
00 dodge ram 2500 4x4
01 honda rubicon 4x4

 

Who put on the winch maybe the wires weren't right.

 

Killer250r i do not think that the winch was put on wrong because i have used it before and it worked great. i think what happened was the on connector off of the cyliniod was not tight and it was bouncing around. and thats how the problem started but i was mostly curious if more damaged could have occuered besides needind a new battery and wires. thanks though you were kinda right.

 

Its unlikely that it also ruined your alternator since it is it had to go through the battery first. If you know anyone with a voltmeter check your battery with the key off, then check the battery voltage again while the engine is running. Should show around 14.2 volt or so running. If voltage is ok odds are your alternator is ok. You can run more elaborate test like checking diodes but I wouldn't worry about it if voltage is ok.