I discovered a disassembled 20 year old Warn 8274 for sale at a local Jeep shop. The seller had left it at the shop to see if anyone would buy it, and after looking through all the parts to confirm that all of them were there(at least I thought so), I decided to buy it for $100! There was no wire rope, the roller fairlead was toast, and the motor supposedly didn't run. But the housing and gears were good, so I went for it.

I couldn't have rebuilt the electrical without the help of BillaVista's excellent 8274 website here, and the fantastic support from Warn. When trying to find an insulator for the motor, the folks at Warn told me they would take the time to remove one from an older motor and send it out to me at no charge. Wow! This company is still going out of its way to support a 20 year old product - I'm sold.

Basically I cleaned up all the internals and had the motor professionally cleaned and reinsulated at a local electric motor shop. Then, I replaced all the wiring with new welding cable and brass terminals, and I purchased the following new items. Note that Warn still sells parts for this winch:

• 4 new Starer Solenoids from Autozone
• Lower Housing Seal Kit - Warn part
• Clutch Lever - Warn part
• Brushes for the motor - Warn part
• Solenoid Cover - Warn part

After Confirming that it was alive again, I bought the following:

• 100ft of Blue Diamond 3/8" synthetic winch line
• Aluminum Fairlead