Warn 9.5XP motor water damage

[hzavarce]

Well, today I found out my winch was not working. Long story short I found this thread:

https://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-tech/216374-warn-9-5-xp-problem.html

I did not do the drain hole work, and now my motor is toasted… The instructions are very vague about this !!..... The winch has only been on the truck for 10K miles, and have only used it once !

I was hoping I can clean it up and fix it, but wanted to ask for advice / help first.

What are my options here ? any thoughts are appreciated. See picture:

 

[sprocket3]

That is pretty ugly. I have a nex xp on my Short Bus bumper. I hope this doesn't happen feet down!

Did you have the winch submerged in water? Seems like a lot of rust for only a couple years.

You could just take it apart and clean it all up real well then put it back together again. It's just a motor after all!

Another option is a local motor rebuilder. I think every large city has a local place that rebuilds starters/alternators/motors and such. It would be worth a call to get a quote for local repair saving all the shipping fees.

 

[AutoCraft Aus]

over here we 2 pack the inside with elec winding paint, as well as string and varnish wind the com, to prevent the wires flying out with centrifical force, causing them to contact the outers, as well as seal the motor and add a breather tube to it, so it runs to a low vaccum spot on the air cleaner to change the air in there so it doesnt condensate either.

Also add o rings to the drum ends, on the std ones, but also make new drums bigger, as well as larger centre dia, so they wind in faster, and when replacing the motor we use a superwinch 7.8 hp motor instead of the warn unit.

 

[concretejungle]

another reason not to blindly chose warn as your only winch choice. Hate to hear that happened to you.

 

[sleeoffroad]

That is not Warn's fault. The issue is that the winch is setup for feet down mounting and you need to open the drain hole for feet forward mounting.

 

[hzavarce]

The winch was never submerge under water. The water that got in was due to normal conditions, such as rain, car wash, etc...

I agree with Slee, and I don't blame the whole thing to the product. I do however think that the instruction could have a VERY BIG WARNING text about this, and in my opinion Warn is to be partially blamed about this.

If you look at the instructions, they only explain this in a few lines, and show a picture that does not really say anything. For example, even if I caught this, I would have never thought that you have to actually take the motor off the winch to open up the drain hole, and the instructions do not say this anywhere.

Anyway, I worked on it last night some more, and I was able to take everything apart. It was not too hard. I also think that the main cause of failure was that the motor contacts (i.e. brushes) where stuck (see picture). I was able to free up all 4 and I am now cleaning things up as much as I can.

I will put it together and see if it works. If successful then I will order some parts, like new set of brushes, gaskets, etc…

 

[sleeoffroad]

The manual I read had pretty clear instructions and pictures on this. That said, that was the first manual I read for a winch to see if this was documented after we discovered the same situation.

 

[hzavarce]

Here are the pages for my manual. Off course, when you read this after the fact, it makes perfect sense. Note that it does not say anything at all how to perform this task (i.e. motor removal).

 

[TroutRunner]

If I have the shortbus with the 9.5X do I need to make the change or am I good to go?

TR

 

[TroutRunner]

I wish I had my manual but it is in storage, any answer to the post above?

TR

 

[hzavarce]

I think you are good. The winch is ready for feet down mounting, which is the Slee shortbus setup.

You only need to make a change when you are doing a feet forward install.

 

[TroutRunner]

Thanks, I dunked my whole truck a few weeks ago and my winch still works, but I wanted to be sure I did all I could to avoid problems.

TR

 

[concretejungle]

this makes me wonder about my t-max now? Nothing in the owners manual at all about a drain.

 

[sleeoffroad]

The feet down mounting in the ShortBus does not require changes when mounting the Warn winches. However if you did dunk the winch, make sure you run it so that it gets hot and the moisture evaporate.

 

[hzavarce]

Update: I cleaned up the rust as much as I could and loosen up the brushes. I put the motor back together and it worked !.

However, I think the damage is already done, and the reliability and longevity of the motor is seriously compromised.

Now the best part. I did send an email to Warn customer service, and they called me ! and offer to look at the winch and try to repair it free of charge. I only had to pay shipping to their shop.

Warn should be getting the Winch today... lets see what they say about it.

 

[concretejungle]

Update: I cleaned up the rust as much as I could and loosen up the brushes. I put the motor back together and it worked !.

However, I think the damage is already done, and the reliability and longevity of the motor is seriously compromised.

Now the best part. I did send an email to Warn customer service, and they called me ! and offer to look at the winch and try to repair it free of charge. I only had to pay shipping to their shop.

Warn should be getting the Winch today... lets see what they say about it.

Now that's good service.

 

[hzavarce]

Another update

I just got an email from Warn. They replaced the motor with a new one, and they are shipping the winch back to me today !!!!

The received the winch, look at it, repaired it, and shipped it back to me in less than 24 hours. Wow, that is very impressive, kudos for Warn ! boy, can't tell you enough how happy I am.

 

[richj11]

This thread scared the heck out of me. Even though this is IH8MUD, I actually love mud and water. My winch has been submerged many times....

Anyway, I have a Warn XD9000. First thing I did was check the manual and it does NOT have the note about the drain hole depending on how you mount it. It DOES however say "After submerging the winch, send it in for factory servicing."

So, I figured I had better check it out. I did find some minor rust on the end bearing. I didn't tear it down any more, but what I could see inside with a flashlight looked almost as good as new.

So, I cleaned it all up and put it back in. It ran fine and the peace of mind was worth it.

 

[e9999]

odd, went and checked the manual for my newish M12000. Nothing about rotating the drains and in fact, it shows the winch with feet forward as the only position used in the drawings... Maybe the drains are already set up for feet forward?

anybody knows specifically about the M12 drains?

 

[FJBen]

odd, went and checked the manual for my newish M12000. Nothing about rotating the drains and in fact, it shows the winch with feet forward as the only position used in the drawings... Maybe the drains are already set up for feet forward?

anybody knows specifically about the M12 drains?

x2 bump? is the 12K good to go, or does it need some drain flippin?