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Winch solenoid upgrade


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I have a Warn M8000 I bought used. I don't know how old it is. I rebuilt it and the winch works great. The problem I am having is the solenoids are going out and only work occasionally. I can hear them click but there is no power transfer. 

 

I can buy new solenoids or I can upgrade to a contractor pack. The contractor I am looking at is Warn 98381. It is used on the Warn Zeon XP winches. It is going to be about the same price to get the contactor or 4 new solenoids. 

 

Would it be worth the trouble of upgrading or should I stick with new solenoids? Also Can I reuse my old controller or do I need to get a new one?

 

I haven't been able to find much info about doing the upgrade. Any info on this subject would be appreciated.

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I'm restoring a Warn 8274 and replaced the solenoids to keep it authentic.

 

If I didn't really care about appearance, I'd get one of those cheap solenoid packs.  Either way, I'd pick similar parts that don't have a Warn markup on them.

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This topic came at a great time, my buddies Warn 8000 lb winch "died" so he bought a new one and gave me the dead one.

Symptoms were winch reels out fine but not in. totally a relay problem but he bought the new winch before digging into it, anyway bummer for him, yeah for me.

If I use one of the replacement relays as shown how does the controller connect to it?

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2 hours ago, Big_Mark said:

This topic came at a great time, my buddies Warn 8000 lb winch "died" so he bought a new one and gave me the dead one.

Symptoms were winch reels out fine but not in. totally a relay problem but he bought the new winch before digging into it, anyway bummer for him, yeah for me.

If I use one of the replacement relays as shown how does the controller connect to it?

I'd bet that the 3 pins from the controller attach to the spade connectors sticking down in the front.  You'd probably want to fabricate a sheet metal bracket to mount the plug.

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4 hours ago, Limeyjeeper said:

Just get one of these they work fine, $24 Probably made in the same plant as the Warn one without the name.

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Do you have experience with this contactor? If reliable it would be a great low cost alternative to the Warn version.

 

From my research Warn uses Albright contactors made in the UK. The Albright DC88-1000P is the very close to the Warn version. All the specs of that contactor can be found on their website. https://www.albrightinternational.com/products/dc88-1000p/

 

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On 9/27/2025 at 3:20 PM, Limeyjeeper said:

Yes I have one on my Comanche. Seems to work fine. For what it costs you can have 2 spares for tbe cost of the Warn one!!

How did you connect the controller cable to the relay assembly?

Pics please and thank you! :jammin:

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