noreserve
Active Member
Thanks Tech Tim for the illustrated steps and info. I also appreciated reading through all of the comments - wish I would have done that prior to starting. I ran into a few of the ones mentioned, along with some of my own. I always anticipate an install taking me several times longer than what is estimated, but man, this one shouldn't have been as troublesome as it was. It really pulled my average down. I think I'm getting worse, even with more tools.
* Removed the Warn Zeon 10-S Platinum from my TJ off of a Poison Spyder bumper. That was loads of fun. It has been on there for a couple of years as a heavy bumper ornament waiting for me to finish my "project" TJ. Then the JL came along, I forgot what a hassle I had getting the Poison Spyder bumper to fit (frame grinding and such), but knew I didn't want to take it off. That winch was a lot easier to get onto the bumper before installation than trying to remove without taking the bumper back off. That gave me some nice raw knuckles to go into the JL install with.
* Everything was going as planned on the JL, even getting the winch mounted and the bumper slammed back into place. What would first come back to haunt me is step 12 in the Warn instructions in regard to removing the fog light harness clips. With the bumper back on, it seemed that I missed removing all harness wire mounting points - wasn't clear in the instructions. I thought the harness wire had gotten pinched by the front bumper. I ended up pulling the bumper off, removing the wire at additional clip points and still wasn't sure the holes and clips were going to "...hang loosely, but will later be secured to winch plate." Right. That never did work out. Got it routed pushed into the closest holes and connected back up, but that was a headache that I thought could have been avoided if they had clearly shown which of the harness clips to remove. It can be read as they ALL need to be removed, but it doesn't specify with that wording.
* Second issue was, of course, access to those inner bumper bolts. I don't think a winch/plate/bumper configuration could have been designed with any less tolerance if they tried. I have pivoting ratchets, all sorts of extensions and still could not find the trick. Access was a nightmare to turn the ratchets. It finally got done, but took a LONG time and lots of new aches were found afterward. My neck was already suffering from the TJ removal the day before. I envy those with a lift.
* Next issue was tightening the winch plate bracket to the frame skid plate mounting bracket. I may not have found the proper torque value for those, as one seemed to be questionable and potentially overtightened. I have forgotten which value I used - thought it was in the 30 - 40 range. I understand Warn doesn't want the liability of specifying vehicle torque values that might change, but it wasn't clear what that bracket and bolts were in the torque value table I found. The bumper torque values were no problem - "Front bumper to frame nuts - 66". Got it. By the time I got to the "Skid plate to frame - 48" I was already spooked about over tightening and stripping. The 48 lb ft seemed pretty high to me for those bolts into the thin nut fixtures, so I just tightened what felt right.
* Next issue was the fairlead. Of course I didn't have the correct bolt lengths among the Warn supplied ones I used previously. There are too many layers of metal - winch plate, filler plate, fairlead all combined to make me drive to Ace - and then to Home Depot. I ended up crushing right through one of the nice chrome cap nuts I had, so I had to find bolts that actually worked with nuts that would fit in the fairlead. And I also ended up having to turn the bolts around and have them on the outside versus nice chrome cap nuts. Of course neither ACE nor HD had the right chrome cap nut size for the bolts I could find. I ended up using some nice rusties - probably from the TJ - but they are hidden and will do the job. That fairlead was a major pain.
* Next up was routing the wiring. No problem on the TJ, with its cavernous engine bay. It took me FAR too long to study the routing possibilities - under this, beside that, separate positive and negative at this point, go in from different sides, etc. It also took me way too long to give in and remove the air intake box - didn't want to screw up those rubber mounts. Well, knowing what I know now - just YANK it up and it's out - I would have saved a lot of time. That frees up a lot of space for me to find more routing options.
* Yes, I nicked the winch paint - didn't read enough in the thread before I got to that point or I would have taped it off. It took nothing at all to remove that paint - steel on aluminum you know. I did put my Zeon cover on it, but that was a tight fit that I figured was too much of a pain. All of my effort was going to be rewarded with actually seeing what I installed - at least the Warn winch head peeking out. I left it off. It is waterproof, so screw it. Speaking of seeing anything - man, what a difference from when it was mounted up high on the TJ. I can't see anything now, so I imagine I'll be using a flashlight and praying for the best when winding the rope back on.
Well, like everything I've done, I can now do it in a third of the time. Not that I have winches to install every week.
I'll call it the Warn "witch" install and hope my next project goes more smoothly.
* Removed the Warn Zeon 10-S Platinum from my TJ off of a Poison Spyder bumper. That was loads of fun. It has been on there for a couple of years as a heavy bumper ornament waiting for me to finish my "project" TJ. Then the JL came along, I forgot what a hassle I had getting the Poison Spyder bumper to fit (frame grinding and such), but knew I didn't want to take it off. That winch was a lot easier to get onto the bumper before installation than trying to remove without taking the bumper back off. That gave me some nice raw knuckles to go into the JL install with.
* Everything was going as planned on the JL, even getting the winch mounted and the bumper slammed back into place. What would first come back to haunt me is step 12 in the Warn instructions in regard to removing the fog light harness clips. With the bumper back on, it seemed that I missed removing all harness wire mounting points - wasn't clear in the instructions. I thought the harness wire had gotten pinched by the front bumper. I ended up pulling the bumper off, removing the wire at additional clip points and still wasn't sure the holes and clips were going to "...hang loosely, but will later be secured to winch plate." Right. That never did work out. Got it routed pushed into the closest holes and connected back up, but that was a headache that I thought could have been avoided if they had clearly shown which of the harness clips to remove. It can be read as they ALL need to be removed, but it doesn't specify with that wording.
* Second issue was, of course, access to those inner bumper bolts. I don't think a winch/plate/bumper configuration could have been designed with any less tolerance if they tried. I have pivoting ratchets, all sorts of extensions and still could not find the trick. Access was a nightmare to turn the ratchets. It finally got done, but took a LONG time and lots of new aches were found afterward. My neck was already suffering from the TJ removal the day before. I envy those with a lift.
* Next issue was tightening the winch plate bracket to the frame skid plate mounting bracket. I may not have found the proper torque value for those, as one seemed to be questionable and potentially overtightened. I have forgotten which value I used - thought it was in the 30 - 40 range. I understand Warn doesn't want the liability of specifying vehicle torque values that might change, but it wasn't clear what that bracket and bolts were in the torque value table I found. The bumper torque values were no problem - "Front bumper to frame nuts - 66". Got it. By the time I got to the "Skid plate to frame - 48" I was already spooked about over tightening and stripping. The 48 lb ft seemed pretty high to me for those bolts into the thin nut fixtures, so I just tightened what felt right.
* Next issue was the fairlead. Of course I didn't have the correct bolt lengths among the Warn supplied ones I used previously. There are too many layers of metal - winch plate, filler plate, fairlead all combined to make me drive to Ace - and then to Home Depot. I ended up crushing right through one of the nice chrome cap nuts I had, so I had to find bolts that actually worked with nuts that would fit in the fairlead. And I also ended up having to turn the bolts around and have them on the outside versus nice chrome cap nuts. Of course neither ACE nor HD had the right chrome cap nut size for the bolts I could find. I ended up using some nice rusties - probably from the TJ - but they are hidden and will do the job. That fairlead was a major pain.
* Next up was routing the wiring. No problem on the TJ, with its cavernous engine bay. It took me FAR too long to study the routing possibilities - under this, beside that, separate positive and negative at this point, go in from different sides, etc. It also took me way too long to give in and remove the air intake box - didn't want to screw up those rubber mounts. Well, knowing what I know now - just YANK it up and it's out - I would have saved a lot of time. That frees up a lot of space for me to find more routing options.
* Yes, I nicked the winch paint - didn't read enough in the thread before I got to that point or I would have taped it off. It took nothing at all to remove that paint - steel on aluminum you know. I did put my Zeon cover on it, but that was a tight fit that I figured was too much of a pain. All of my effort was going to be rewarded with actually seeing what I installed - at least the Warn winch head peeking out. I left it off. It is waterproof, so screw it. Speaking of seeing anything - man, what a difference from when it was mounted up high on the TJ. I can't see anything now, so I imagine I'll be using a flashlight and praying for the best when winding the rope back on.
Well, like everything I've done, I can now do it in a third of the time. Not that I have winches to install every week.
I'll call it the Warn "witch" install and hope my next project goes more smoothly.
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