i have a 2001 yamaha grizzly 600 with a 2500lb warn winch. the other day i was out plowing with a friend and every thing was fine for about two or three hours when i went to lower my winch again it wouldnt budge so when i notice my horn wouldnt i immediatly looked at the fuse and it was blown so i replaced it, then after about 15 minutes it blew again so i put another in so after 25 minutes that one blew and so iput another and anther and another and each one of them blew immediately so i am stuck what is wrong with it. PLEASE HELP!!!!!!

 

Did you look at the winch? Is the cable binding somewhere? You may have to bump it around to see.

 

The cable isn't binding at all b/c when i took the plow off today i disengaged the winch and the cble came out freely. Thanks for the suggestion. Keep them coming

 

Your comment about the horn not blowing indicates the problem is with the low amperage fuse that feeds the controls of the winch rather than the fuse supplying power to the winch motor. If this is correct then I would check the winch relay and the "Up/Down" switch on the handlebars. The related wiring would also be suspect. My first guess would be the relay has failed, probably a bad coil inside it.

It is also quite possible, depending on how the wiring was hooked up, that the added load of the relay has overloaded the wiring on the quad causing the insulation to fail. Does the fuse blow if you do not use the winch? If the fuse holds when the winch is not used then the problem is most likely isolated to the wiring and/or controls added for the winch.

 

The fuse blows as soon as i turn the key (on position b/c i turn it off to avoid elctrical shock).

 

Unhook your battery, hook up an ohm meter across the leads that normally go to the battery. Read what the standing resistance is. Turn on the key and you will probably find you read a direct short. Unhook the wiring you hooked up when putting the winch in. If the reading drops to a reasonable level the problem is in the winch wiring. Tracking it from there with an ohm meter is not difficult.

If you don't know how to use an ohm meter take a class or get a book. A bit of knowledge in this area will serve you well when working on your quad.

 

i willl try that tomorrow but the winch has been working since december of 1999 so why would it suddenly stop now if it had always worked fine?

 

either the winch it self or the wiring to it has developed a dead short. maybe the wiring rubbed on some metal and finally wore thru to expose the wire creating a dead short. if not maybe the winch it self internals are shorting out. just an idear.

 

When a problem like this pops up after long usage it is usually a wiring rub thru. that being said, it could also be a relay failure such as a burnt coil going to ground. I really doubt if the problem is in the winch itself unless the relay is locked in an "on" position which is not probable from what you have described. It wouldn't hurt to unhook the wires at the winch until you have the problem fixed. This would keep the winch from starting inadvertently.