winch solenoids

[w00189wr]

I have a little dc winch that has a cheap forward reverse switch on it. The switch has two wire from the battery and two from the winch. I know the switch , switches the polarity to reverse the motor.
My question is: I have a pendant up down control, model BW72y that is connected to two (what I call solenoids????).
The solenoids look almost the same, but the bottom one looks like there is an insulating washer on two terminals. What I like to know if the solenoids are the same or not, how to check them, how they change the polarity and how and where to hook up the two wires coming from the battery and the two wires coming from the winch.
I can't find any brand name or numbers on the solenoids, but each of them have two big terminals on the top and two big terminals on the side. Then they have two little terminals on the front which seem to be insulated and one of these terminals on each solenoid is grounded. Then One big side terminal on the left side of each solenoid is bonded together with a strap and is loose which I think a hot wire from the battery was connected. The top solenoid has a cable going to the right side terminal and I think it was grounded. The top solenoid also has the left top terminal bonded with a strap to the left top terminal on the bottom solenoid. I took this assembley off a service truck lift crane a year ago and I'm just getting to trying to hook it up and when I took it off I thought I'd be able to figure it out, but no way. Can some one help. I don't want to burn the winch up. Thanks

 

[Lakey]

Hi,

I think I understand what your saying.

Essentially, you have two solenoids that were probably fixed side-by-side with their housings and connection points mounted on the top.

You may have 2 single pole double throw [SPDT] contactors linked together. A good guide to see if the contactors are indeed meant to be together would be to check the coil resistances.....they should have similar readings [within 10% of one another].

You could also measure the operating voltages i.e. voltage at which the contactor operates or switches ON, and voltage at which the contactor switches OFF or drops out. These readings should also be similar, but you would need a PSU to do this whereby you could slowly ramp the voltage up and down..

With this arrangement there will be four main connections, two for the motor and two for the supply, possibly marked +V, Gnd, A1 & A2 plus solenoid wiring.

There should be a link from one contactor to the other which connects the normally open [NO] contacts together.....connect +V here. These terminals are probably on the top.

The two remaining terminals on the top of each housing are most likely connected to the normally closed [NC] contacts of their respective housing. Link these and connect one of motor terminals to each of these links.

This leaves either one or two connections below the terminals where you’ve connected you positive battery supply [+Ve]. Connect one or both of these to ground [-Ve]

Finally you have your solenoids control wires to deal with, check for correct polarity before connection. Incorrect polarity may affect the solenoids performance.

If you motor/winch travels in the wrong direction you can swap the control wires around or the motor connections.

Other than that, try searching for motor reversing circuits!

Best regards,