I recently replaced a set of winch connectors on a Land Cruiser rescue-vehicle. The vehicle is about 10 years old, but I do not know the age of the connectors, they may have been replaced previously. They have been fitted to the vehicle since it was new, and were mounted underneath the bumper front and back. Local regulations makes permanent winch mounts difficult on road legal vehicles, so the winch was stored in the trunk. The connector looks like and mates with the original Anderson Powerpole SB 175 connectors, but closer inspection revealed that the connector was un-keyed. The original connectors are keyed such that you can only mate connectors of the same color, with the exception of black connectors that are un-keyed. This one was red, so it should be keyed. The Anderson site contains detailed drawings of the original connector. If you are unfamiliar with the SB-series of connectors and want to learn more I recommend taking a look at the catalog and mounting instructions.
The connectors show signs of heavy corrosion, and the green death is prevalent on the contacts. They were fitted with a plastic end cap, but it only offers limited protection against the environment. There is also a power shut-off switch for these connectors made to limit the corrosion caused by electrical current when the winch is not in use, but it has probably been left in the “ON” position for some months. Interestingly, the actual wire contact lugs appear to be original Powerpole contacts. It is a bit difficult to make out on the photo as the contact is upside down, but the “A” stamp was clearly visible underneath the green death. I guess the reason is that the original contacts are relatively cheap if you buy bulk, whereas the housings are expensive.
The housing on the left was mounted underneath the rear bumper, the one on the right was mounted on the winch and was mostly kept in the trunk. The housing broke apart when I tried to remove the cable. There is a spring in the part that is broken off that is supposed to hold the contact in place. This spring was completely corroded, thus proper removal of the contact was impossible. As you can see there is also a bolt and captive nut stuck to the connector housing. There are two apparent reasons for this; the bolt is corroded (even though it is actually stainless) and the steel panel has collision damage. Someone had backed into something, buckling the steel panel under the car where the captive nuts were mounted. I was unable to un-screw the captive nut, it just rotated in its’ hole, so I had to employ the “Clarkson-method”, using hammers and pry-bars.
![clip_image001[5]](https://i0.wp.com/lokna.no/wpPics/04c3621a9e28_13D62/clip_image0015_4.jpg "clip_image001[5]")
I was unable to verify if the captive nuts were original. The Land Cruiser has a lot of captive nuts installed at the factory, but these may have been installed with the winch kit.
