The winch control box obtains its ground return through the control box chassis which in turn obtains its ground by being attached to the winch housing via 2 hose clamps. If the clamps come loose for what ever reason, or the winch housing gets severely rusted, the control circuit will not work.

If the control box seems loose in any way, clean up the rust and then tighten the clamps and everything is ok. NO NEED TO RIP EVERYTHING APART---> TRY THIS FIRST <---.

To prevent this from happening in the future one can connect a wire between the control box chassis and the winch housing using the screw that holds the power cable clamp on the right side of the winch (when you are facing it). This was a 1992 winch so this wire may have already been added on future versions of the winch.

Since I had the thing apart I also bypassed the current limit PCB. From what I can see the current limit is only active when the winch spools in. The easiest and most fool-proof way to bypass the current limiter is to identify the yellow and the green wire (both likely covered with brushed on rubber) that comes from the rubber coated PCB, cut both about midway and strip a bit off each end then twist 2 pairs of ends together and crimp them in a butt splice so that all 4 ends are now shorted.

It would also be a good idea to coat the butt splice with some kind of water proofing, (paint, wax, grease, silicon, etc.)

DONE

David