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Warn remote differences

Bmxbry9

Let's hit the trail
CAL4
Joined
May 19, 2020
Member Number
315
Messages
295
My old remote mysteriously went missing from my rig, it worked normal with my winch. So while down at hammers I purchased a new remote, still wired just with a button style toggle switch. Didn't test it at the lake bed. My problem is it won't spool in my winch and the light on the remote will just flash. Is it something to do with my winch being old vs new remote? They are still both 5 pin connectors

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That's kinda neat you can take out the rocker switch.

Can you show a better pic of which wires go where on the Carling toggle switch?

I don't remember the pinout by heart, but it's something like the pic below (the pic may or may not be accurate, but from memory seems right).

Do you have a multimeter and comfortable using it?

On the super old winches the controller only had 3 pins. One was 12 volt feed to controller, and the other two pins got connected to the 12 volt through the switch when activated (one for in and other for out).

The 5 pin winches added in two pins that would ground the winches solenoids, so one of those pins was connected to ground and the other pin was connected to the wire on the solenoid that should go to ground. These two pins are connected when the controller switch is activated (in or out, doesn't matter).

The lights on your new controller are to indicate thermal overheating or something like that (I really don't know about that newfangled stuff).

You can pretty easily meter everything out (winch side and controller side) to see if everything matches. Since you can remove that toggle switch in your controller, it should be quite easy to rewire to fit your winch.

I would run the winch using jumper wires first to prove that it has no issues, then rewire your controller to match.

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I'm curious to see what shakes out here, I bought a new remote 6-7 years ago for an 1983 8275 and it worked fine...
 
I have a multimeter, don't know how to use it and it's a cheap HF one.

I've tested the winch with a buddies old remote and it spools in just fine.

Here are some pics of the switch wiring
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Ummmmm
Mexico!
I have no idea what's going on with the wiring on the right side of that switch, but it looks like the important shit happens on the left side


Red should be your hot in. Green is power to spool out and white should spool in .


I believe brown is part of the thermal protection circuit. Don't know how it actually works on those as I got rid of the solenoid bank on mine and installed a contactor. It looks like brown triggers the red light and also grounds out the top right pin (#7). I'm thinking when brown signals a fault it's grounding out the switch so it can't operator the solenoids. Try removing the black jumper between pins 7 and 5 on the right side or just disonnect the brown wire and see if the winch works. That'll at least tell you if there's something going on with the thermal protection circuit.

If that does it, you probably want to investigate the thermal shit a little more and figure out why it thinks there's a fault.

Slightly different part number but pretty sure this is the same switch...might just be a difference of latching vs. momentary.
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well just messed with it. Pulled wires 8, 7 and 6 at separate times and no change. Will still spool out but not in. Next options are ordering a new remote or upgrading to an Amazon special contactor

Winch in question

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Try using a piece of wire or paper clip and jump 2 to 1 and then try 2 to 3. Those should spool out and in.


This sounds more like a bad solenoid, but the fact that another controller worked kind of rules that out.


If you grab your multimeter and put it in continuity mode, pin 2 on the switch should go to the 12vdc on the plug, pin 1 winch out and pin 3 winch in.
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And assuming that the colors on that pic are right, they don't match up with what's on your switch. Its possible that warn isn't using the same colors on the new stuff, or the new stuff wired completely different.

You could try removing all of the wires from the switch and then putting:
white - pin 2
black - pin 1
green - pin 3

If the labels in the plug pic is right, that should bypass any of the thermal shit and just work.


This would be a 30 second job if you knew how to use that multimeter. :flipoff2:
 
Just for shits, because this shit bugs me, I popped the switch out of mine. It's the same style, but doesn't have the light on the switch. My switch has the same part number but only 6 terminals instead of 8.

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So apparently I was off a little - I assumed they were switching hot but it looks like ground it what's switched for in/out.
So this is what I'd try based off the plug diagram and what I'm seeing in mine.
white - pin 2
red - pin 1
green - pin 3
 
I needed to go spool my line out so I could rinse the mud off and let it dry out any way. (Fuckin' shit was frozen solid because I spooled it in wet a couple weeks ago.) :laughing:

So with the controller plugged in to the winch, I pulled reg/green/white completely from the plug and then jumped red-white and red-green and it worked just as expected.

I'd try this on yours and if it works, just copy the way my switch is wired and forget about he lighted switch shit. Maybe others that know how warn's protections circuit works can comment on what else might be going on, but sounds like you'll be ok bypassing that all together. Just maybe don't lend your controller to anyone with a newer winch. :laughing:

 
Well I tried jumping the wires and no spooling in. What causes solenoids to go bad?
 
Well I tried jumping the wires and no spooling in. What causes solenoids to go bad?
5 pin remotes require the (+) to go through the switch and the (-) to also go through the switch.

In other words: You need two jumpers at the same time for it to work.

Use the continuity beeper setting on your multimeter (pronounced like altimeter!) and find out which pins are connected together when the remote is pushed for "in" and also for "out"

Move the connectors around on your new remote to match.
 
Well just figured out jumping 5 to 6 makes it spool in and out. Not sure how to move the connectors around though
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Does jumping 5 to 4 spool it in?
No, that last post got confused. Jumping 5 to 6 then hitting the switch spools it in. And spooling out works as it should
 
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No, that last post got confused. Jumping 5 to 6 then hitting the switch spools it in. And spooling out works as it should
Well, you could try pulling the jumper from 7 and moving it to 6 and delete the brown wire.....or just tape it up and stuff it in the remote handle in case you need to unfuck it in the future. :laughing:

I tried to find a diagram on how the new warn controls work and came up empty. You're probably fine doing it this way, I'd just be cautious about loaning your controller to anyone else with a newer model.


Or you could swap in a simpler switch and just use the 3 control wires and ignore the rest.

 
I wired an Albright contactor to an 8274 a couple ylears ago and found a few different wiring diagrams and color codes for Warn winch controllers. Some wired the directional switch with + and some with -. I copied the wiring from an M12000 that I believe to be OEM Warn from the mid 2000's. See diagram below.

For the later model Warn winches with the 5 pin controller: I wired the control to the + to control direction (red wire). In the winch control box I wired the brown wire directly to ground.

Wiring the ground to the brown lead lets me use any 3 pin, or 5 pin controller. I have not tried a 6 pin controller but will as soon as I can get my hands on one.

I used this diagram for the basic wiring and added the brown lead to ground. I believe the contactor needs the black to brown and the red to directional (white or green) to work with the 5 pin controller. By grounding the brown wire it eliminates the internal switch and takes away one of Warn's safety precautions.

It also means the cord can short to the body when you pinch the lead in the door when you're not paying attention and can really wake you up quick. I wired a warn male plug inside the cab and use a wireless controller now. But I also carry a super short lead that plugs inside made from the melted parts from above.


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I forgot I had this also. Not the later style but the early 5 pin style.

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Well I think I might pull the yellow wire. Then wire add a jumper wire from 5 to 6
 
Well got it working! Thanks for the help. Ended up switching the brown and black wires

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