Hopefully someone here has knowledge or access to a higher level Warn engineer/technician. I have a M12000 Warn winch I bought cheap from an car salvage yard. It didn't run when I got it. It was originally installed on a 2006-8 Dodge Ram 2500 power wagon. The free spool and engage works. I have disassembled the control module to clean it and trouble shoot. The motor spins when hooked directly to a battery. All four solenoids work correctly and they were tested with an ohm meter to verify open and closed state with acceptable resistance. That leaves the module wiring. I have cleaned the power buss bars and all screw connectors. Where the wires go to the cover bulkhead pin fitting is bad. The insulation is breaking and wire is exposed. So far Warn help line has told me it's a Chrysler product and they don't have access to the wiring diagram. I don't want it to work on the Dodge. All internals are marked Warn. I need the bulkhead pin fitting and normal internal wiring. Just the bulkhead fitting and pins would work and I'd make my own new harness. Down and dirty I just need to know the pin spec to buy a pin removal tool and new pins to reuse the same fitting This might work but Warn doesn't have it listed online as a replacement part for the M12000. It does not have the motor thermal overload connection but I'm fine not using it. I suspect the thermal switch may not work right because it was bypassed/jumpered by the previous owner.
Thanks. I'm reading through it. I've heard good things about Warn's technical help line but so far I'm unimpressed.
I had an issue with the winch on my 2005 Power Wagon once; it would spool out but there was nothing when trying to spool it back in. I contacted Warn and found out that Chrysler had Warn install multiple thermal safeties on the Power Wagon winches. Chrysler was (justifiably) worried that people who knew nothing about winches would purchase a Power Wagon and try to use the winch continuously if they needed it and burn it up (as in not giving the winch time to cool down during a recovery). The Warn rep said (off the record) that there was a simple bypass that could be done if there was an issue with the thermal safeties. I searched the PW forums and found the bypass, ran to NAPA, and for less than $3.00, had my winch up and running again. That was a long time ago however a quick Google search today found multiple references to the bypass. Here is one: Bypassing the winch thermal protection... | DodgeTalk Forum I don't know if the issue you are having is the same one, but it is a cheap place to begin. The bypass issue is/was very common on the PW winches. I don't have any of the info from Warn anymore (I had contacted them back around 2008) however I would recommend browsing the PW forums for winch issue comments/questions. Sorry to hear you had no luck with Warn's technical help. I've always received great assistance from them over the decades. I do miss that truck (I also had a 2016 Power Wagon and actually liked the 2005 better). The winches were great for scrounging firewood and the hidden winch mount was awesome.
I went back through some old files and found the service document the Warn rep sent me (pdf file). Hope it helps.
Well, I started taking the whole winch apart to look for damage. All that iron and aluminum oxide fell out of the motor when I pulled it. Bearings actually feel decent. The internals look like crap. She's been filled with water once or twice and seen road salt. I'm kinda surprised she would turn at all. I'm looking for a new motor too. Winch came with a 30 day warranty. Going to see if I can get a partial refund. EOD, thanks for the links. This winch came with the thermal bypassed. It was my first sign things might be bad inside. The thermester was corroded so bad it as swelled and split open. All the seals had failed. I will get it rebuilt. Just takes some time and money. I suspect Warn has alot of new people. Like other companies due to COVID. Their sales may have actually increased due to the boom of people doing vanlife and overlanding during the shutdown. Alot of people went into the wilderness into the last 2 years. I think the rep I got could handle common problems that follow a flowchart of questions to solve. I had a polite conversation with someone that wanted to help me. The technical knowledge that a guy that needs to rebuild a winch to operate differently than OEM was lacking. I used my electrolytic derust tank to clean up the iron parts while I slept or went to work. I tested all the electric parts with a power supply and Fluke meter. I even made new copper bus bars. I'm just working on the next step.
I got a final email from my Warn technical help contact. The winch is a Chrysler product and I need to call them for tech support. WTF. It's made by Warn with Warn parts...but call Chrysler. I feel like I should just buy Chinese junk. I expect service like this when I pay 1/5 the price.
I had similar issues but I caught it early on when only the brushes had corroded. Ended up cleaning everything up and using lots of dielectric grease. I have a remote plug similar to yours, but I ended up hardwiring a switch in the dash of the jeep rather than drag out the remote every time. But we always had multiple people there, so didn’t need the remote outside to watch what was going on. A couple years later they came out with the wireless remotes. No experience with them at all so I don’t know if they compounded the problems or not
I had a M12000 and fought with it working for a few years until I changed the solenoid pack out for a newer model contactor. Worked fine after that. I also had a M8274 warn. That was hands down the best winch I ever had. Absolutely abused and still never hiccuped once. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
