I want to eventually move the Warn XD9000 solenoid from the bumper to the engine bay.
There is a good spot for it on the passenger side fenderwell.

Looking at the Warn PDF manual for the XD9000, I would have to get longer cables for cables
A, F1, and F2.
Possibly the positive battery cable too, but maybe not, as it is quite long already.

Here is a snapshot using the Acrobat Readers built in snapshot tool.



If I remember right when I took the winch off the 4Runner, the ends that are inside the solenoid are like the other ends that go to the battery and the bolts on the winch.

Does anyone know the gauge of these wires, and about how many feet I would need?

Are there shops that will make up these cables and put the ends on them?
I am willing to order the cables online with the ends on them too if anyone knows of a website.

Presently I beleive the stock cables will not be long enough to reach the winch when the solenoid is mounted under the hood.

Has anyone done this mod yet on an FJ Cruiser or on another Toyota?
I would think the engine compartment dimensions are pretty close for me to get a rough estimate of how much cable I would need.

 

I purchased the cables and lugs at a local welding supply shop. I used 2/0 gauge wire and lugs. You can buy a crimp tool to attach the lugs or have the guy at the shop install them for you. The shop here was willing to cut everything to length and install the lugs for me. I opted to do my own cutting and crimping as I did not know how the long the final lengths would be. In terms of wire lengths, I bought 10' of RED and 20' of BLACK cable. I ended up with about 3' of BLACK left over.

Here is my install write-up that I posted on the FJ forum. The only change I made since this write up was with the Dual Battery Install, I moved the control box forward a little and wired the controls to the AUX battery.

WARN Winch Control - Engine Compartment Installation

I installed a WARN M8000 winch in my ARB bumper and mounted the winch controls in the engine compartment. This thread contains only the installation and wiring of the winch controls. If you're interested you can read my ARB bumper install post and ARB electrical wiring post. This portion of the installation took me about 1 hour (including picture taking). If anyone has any question or needs any help with their install feel free to PM me.

All of the images in this thread are "clickable", so feel free to click on and image to view a larger picture.

The parts:

The WARN M8000 came with almost everything I needed to mount the winch.
Additional items I purchased to complete the installation:
- 10' #2 gauge red wire
- 20' #2 gauge black wire
- 8 #2 gauge cable lugs
- shirk tubing large enough for #2 gauge wire
- 1 winch control mount from my ARB bumper (not required)
- 1 can under body spray coating



Drill two holes in the fender well as shown and install the winch control box: (spray undercoating on the bolts in the fender wells)



Remove windshield washer container bolts and set aside: (don't disconnect, just set it somewhere out of the way)



Route the black winch cables through the existing black rubber grommet then down to the winch:



Route the red cable (power line) to the battery: (I ran the cable in front of the radiator zip tied to some existing wire loom)



Black cables routing through grommet to the winch and red cable routing to battery: (Make all connections at this point, Battery connection should be last, test the winch.)



Cables routing to winch control box:



Reinstall the windshield washer container:



Finished install:




Notable items that came up during the installation (in no particular order):

- Mark the inside of your controls appropriately; I used a permanent marker to write on the copper bars (i.e. F1, F2, A and (P)ower)

 

They should be 4ga. I lengthened mine and went to 0ga since I had some extra around the garage.

I went here and purchased the lines and the ends: http://www.wranglernw.com/

To get a good idea of how long to get, just use some rope and measure out the path you want to take. depending on your path the length may vary from user to user.

Did everything in the garage in one day when I did my dual battery setup. Roger Brown has a good write up on a lot of the electrical stuff so read thru his website to get some ideas. I'm sure a shop can easily make the cables for you but that'll be $$$ so doing it yourself would be better I think.

Good luck

 

Thanks Sol.
There is a welding shop by my work, and also one on the way to work where I get my Powertank filled.

I will have to look to see what the three colors are for
A, F1, and F2.

I bet they could fix me up too with the lugs on each end.

Might have to extend the positive battery wire to the solenoid, not sure yet.

 

Thanks Lance, your post came in right before mine.

 

Thanks again Sol, I see your post just grew some

 

Does anyone know if this voids the warranty? thanks

 

How would it void the warranty by moving an aftermarket part to the engine bay?

 

Maybe I'm an idiot, but dosen't the winch come with the solenoid already mounted to the winch? Are we talking about the same thing? The black box that is normally on the top of the winch correct? I'm fully ready to be flammed if I'm wrong!

 

Well, that depends.
There are two types of solenoids.

Integrated (i series for Warn)
Regular like mine.

Here is an integrated one, the solenoid is part of the winch.
http://warn.com/truck/winches/src/XD9000i.shtml



And the regular non integrated ones like mine, the solenoid is not part of the housing.

http://warn.com/truck/winches/src/XD9000.shtml



On the latter type like mine, you are free to put the black box anywhere you want.
Most bolt it to the top of the bumper, but many put them under the hood out of the way.