Warn Winch Solenoids are Rubbish

[bonza]

got stuck the other day and had to winch my way out of trouble.
problem being the Warn M8000 winch mounted on my Jeep would not spool back in and winch my truck out of the $hit. had to swap F1 lead to F2 in order to winch myself out. a right pain in the backside when by oneself knee deep in it with night approaching

this is the second time a solenoid has packed up in this thing and it is not like it gets loads of use. I have seen industrial solenoids that cycle on and off every few minutes on a continuous basis trouble free for years, but not this POS

a google search has revealed this is a common problem and an alternativ is to install an ALBRIGHT solenoid unit that does away completely the Warn solenoid pack.

looks simple enough, but how do you connect the existing Warn hand held controller to it. mine has five pins but noticed the Albright has three pins for the controller

[Macca2801]

Bonza, I found my warn solenoids were fine, its just the way warn connect the pull in (control) circuit to the solenoids. They are just push on connections and I found most of mine corroded and without using it often, the time you need it required a clean to make the contacts.

I did as you propose and ditched the solenoid pack for an albright. Just mounted it next to the winch and drilled a hole in the bar to mount the warn remnote lead.

they are only three pins used in the Warnd and the Albright an active and two options, ie active to "in" pin and active to "out" pin.



Heaps neater, water proof and better airflow!

Matt.

[bonza]

I have my solenoid pak mounted under the bonnet and is safe from the elements so no corrosion. tested each solenoid and sure enough one of them is dead. found a supplier on ebay so just purchased one for $40. if I blow another one will upgrade to an albright for sure next time

[Mangler]

Originally Posted by bonza

I have my solenoid pak mounted under the bonnet and is safe from the elements so no corrosion. tested each solenoid and sure enough one of them is dead. found a supplier on ebay so just purchased one for $40. if I blow another one will upgrade to an albright for sure next time

My Albright is mounted onto to the Airbox where I blocked off the vent (have a snorkel) - the boot is off my Warn remote (wireless)

[bonza]

Originally Posted by Mangler

My Albright is mounted onto to the Airbox where I blocked off the vent (have a snorkel) - the boot is off my Warn remote (wireless)

thats a real neat looking set up. apparently the Albright paks are a lot more reliable and a hell of a lot more compact

as an aside, if any one finds there solenoids have failed, (usually when you are about to winch yourself out of trouble) you can easily use a jumper lead to the winch motor terminals. do this as follows

1/ disconnect the winch positive lead from the battery
2/ label and disconnect the three cables on the motor terminal posts marked 'A' 'F1' & 'F2'.
3/ connect a jumper lead from 'A' to 'F1'
4/ connect another jumper lead from the battery positive terminal to 'F2'. the winch motor will run in one direction
5/ to operate the winch motor the opposite direction connect jumper from 'A' to 'F2' and jumper from battery positive to 'F1'.

note. be careful when connecting the power lead from the battery pos terminal to the winch motor terminal as the motor will start up instantly

[Mister G]

I went cheaper and bought the Albright copy - Thompson off eBay. Home made bracket just behind the right headlight. I didn't have a snorkel at the time so was still using all the airbox. I too used the socket off the Warn solenoid box - mines only a 3 pin controller. And welding cable.

[bonza]

I dismantled the faulty solenoid as was curious to find out what was wrong as when testing could hear it clicking so that suggest the armature was moving when the coil was energised.
after it was apart found the windings on the coil ok and the armature was free and clean.
what I found was that the internal contacts were burnt and therefore not allowing current to flow to the winch

I'm not an expert on solenoids and relays, but I would have thought better contacts to prevent burning would have been used