Mine went bad in June, not to cold then!! A lot of those solenoids that came with Cat Warn winches went bad, I know of a few.

 

i took my solenoid off and put one from a car on and it wouldn't work,in the mean time i took the old one in the house and let it warm up, put it back on and it has worked for two days now. we got 5 inches of new snow last night!we are running out of room to put it!

 

I believe these solenoids are "constant duty" like is used in a golf carts & such but are available at parts stores. One of the small terminals is ground the other is power from the switch whereas an automotive starter solenoid the second terminal is used to feed the dist full 12 volts for starting.

 

I believe your right there Steve. When I got my new solinoid from Cat I rewired the exciter wire to the tail light, since I don't plow with this machine it cuts down the power on time to the solinoid & I just turn the lights on to use the winch.