Back in 2007, Warn came out with the Powerplant. A combination of winch and air compressor. unfortunately many have had issues with these early winches. Often, the winch would fail to power-in the line. The power-out and the air compressor would still work. This winch has a safety device built in, the Thermo switch. This switch helps to prevent the winch from over heating. Unfortunately in the early production models, Warn utilized a cheap aluminum thermo switch and this is what would fail. The repair... a cheap Nickel coated thermo switch!

I recently aquired a used powerplant that responded in the above manner. Power-out and compressor would work and the power-in would not work at all. Initially it was believed that the solenoid was at fault but after replacing it, there was no change. Not one to give up I did some research and electrical testing. As soon as I bypassed the thermo switch, BLAMMO!!! it worked! I will be visiting Interior offroad tomorow (approved warn repair center) and hopefully pick-up a new thermo switch.

The winch can be used with a bypassed thermo switch with care just be careful when engaging the air compressor as power will be a constant in this manner.

 

Thanks for the info! So far I haven't had any problems. Had the winch since early '08.

Do you have any info on where the thermo switch is located? Can it be bypassed in the field? Any pictures would help (worth a thousand words, I hear).

 

As soon as you take off the end plate of the motor end, you will see the thermo switch located right at the top. It has 2 wires going to it. As long as you can take the end plate off you can easily do this in the field. Simply remove the wires going to the thermo switch and connect them together.

 

Thanks for the info. How can I tell if I have the cheap aluminum or cheap nickel coated switch? Will/do you have pics?

Maybe you can check by serial number? 1159000-1225879 are the "first run"?

Mine is the second series: 1225880-1313749.

 

Thanks for the info. The warn rep didn't tell me about this.

 

Another option would be to contact Warn direct. They've been very responsive getting this part out when needed.