Ground, Ground, Ground.

[mmcdanie]

With some electrical issues it pays to check your ground connections first instead of last. Had and issue with the windlass not engaging, relays were just clicking. The relays were 13 years old so I figured one or both had gone belly up. Replaced both....($117), same issue. Checked and cleaned the ground to the windlass, no more problem. Hey I got a good workout out of it so I'm good.

 

[Peter_C]

Coming from a back ground in diagnostics, "Test, don't guess". A volt ohm meter would have shown you voltage on the ground side and you could have performed the repair in a few minutes. The good thing though is you were able to figure it out and repair it yourself.

 

[pocky21]

Of the myriad of things I've seen go wrong with vehicle electronics, bad grounds have always been the most frustrating, wackiest, and sadly most common issue when it's not a pattern failure. Well, except for the one time an ambulance company wired a PCM signal into a duty cycled solenoid circuit for the patient cab - THAT was interesting.

As said, all that's needed is to check the ground for voltage. 12V in and 12V out means an open somewhere on the ground. 12V in and less than 12V out (say 7V) indicates a resistance issue (usually corrosion or bad connection). 30 second check for next time