<p>Steel wire ropes are prone to damage modes such as broken wires and wear under long-term high-frequency service conditions. Such damage may induce major safety accidents, so it is particularly important to achieve quantitative characterization of steel wire rope damage. In view of the fact that metal magnetic memory detection is easily interfered by external noise, in order to weaken its influence on the detection results, this study explored the force–magnetic coupling detection technology under weak magnetic excitation. The simulation analysis verified that there is a significant correlation between the characteristic quantity of the damaged magnetic signal and the cross-sectional loss rate. The damaged magnetic signal was collected using a three-axis damage detection device for wire ropes. The correlation coefficient of the characteristic quantities of the axial and radial components of the magnetic signal obtained in the experiment was solved, and the characteristic quantity with the highest correlation was selected for independence weight analysis. The linear regression equation between the degree of damage and the newly constructed characteristic quantity was constructed, and its determination coefficient R² = 0.94654.</p>