Clicking Lofrans Anchor Windlass

[john elbro]

New member first thread.I have a Sea Ray 260 Sundancer fitted with a Lofrans anchor. We were out on the boat on Sunday and decided to anchor in the Med, boat in Spain. I released the tie safety clip and asked my Wife to lower the anchor, it started to lower and the chain snagged in the slotted chain ring, my Wife stopped the lower and I relaeased the chain, it was not jammed up, and then I said lower again. The anchor just clicks in the up or down switch position, so it is now pretty useless. Is this just a fuse blown, because I have looked at the Sea Ray manual and the control has two 5amp fuses, but I cannot for the life of me find the box with the fuses in. The relay is under the winch in the chain locker but no sign of anything else.
Is it purely a blown fuse, fuses, please help. Thanks John

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, John.

If you’ve got a “Project 500" Windlass the 5A fuse should be in the Red wire, coming from the battery to the Common terminals on the Up/Down Switches (same red to both).
There should also be a circuit breaker in the Red wire from battery to the control box. SeaRay may have installed a fuse instead.
See ➥ http://www.imtra.com/downloadTypes/P...al_English.pdf

[john elbro]

Thank you so much GordMay for a rapid response. I will check what you have suggested, and remove another panel above the main drop down panel below the steering wheel to find some fuses. I am sure it is a 500 as the boat is a 26 footer. Do you think it is a fuse or could it possibly be jambed and require replacement? The switch is next to what appears to be a 'pop' out fuse unit next to it and linked together, there is a red wire from the switch to this unit linking them together, when I pop out this fuse it completely isolates the whole think as the winlass does not click, so this fuse must be ok. Will do as you say and carry out more searching for fuses because they have to be somewhere! the Sea Ray fuse box has a test swich on it and all green lights get brighted, which I think means they ar ok, but none of them say Anchor, windless etc. Again many thanks, I will get on my knees again, not good for a 66 year old, but I love it, and my boat. I am fairly fit though. Cheers John

[john elbro]

Sorry so long to come back. This windlass was not a Sea Ray fit! There does not seem to be a fuse anywhere on the boat!!!! I bought a new solenoid control box, as an engineer said it could be that, I fitted one, but still only a click on up/down when trying to operate. I have cleaned and refitted the cables as much as posible, unfortunately could only get to one on the motor, as the other two are difficult to get at for me, getting to old to lie around on boat decks.
When I fitted the new solenoid it just clicks as I said, but when I fiddled with the cables on motor it ran when I operated the switch, but if the chain catches on spindle (6mm chain) when it is fully up, the solenoid starts clicking again. It seems the motor is ok, as it operated with the original solenoid when fiddling! is it do you think a bad connection, brushes a bit clogged, or motor needs a good clean?
I have asked an enginner to come and look, but he is busy so I thought I would check back with you. Cheers John

[foggysail]

Do you have a volt meter? Have you measured the voltages at the relay/solenoid?

You should consider starting as near as possible to the windlass and measure voltages that should be present when the windlass is operating and work your way backward to the battery. You will just waste money changing out parts because someone, even an engineer suggest "it could be that widget." It could be a lot of things including a poor battery connection, a tripped circuit breaker or even a failed windlass.

A cheap voltmeter will make your problem much easier to locate. My guess from what you describe is low battery charge.

Foggy

[zeehag]

could be time to check connections.....
welcome to cf.
and they wonder why it is i LIKE manual windlasses.....

[john elbro]

Thank you so much for another quick response, I will check the voltages every where, as that is my opinion. Will let you know the results, again cheers, John

[biggles72]

H. All, I have a lofrans tigres... I think. I've recently changed the controller (hand held up/down switch) and it worked well at first.

Now motor operation it is intimitent. It Works sometimes, fails for a minute and I get the one single click in both up and down position. Then it starts working again, usually after I hand rotate the windlass a few turns. On my last anchor pull when working it slowed down to minimal and barely pulled the final few metres.

Now back at the marina it is again single intermittent click or it's working.

I am a true novice with electrical but got the voltage meter out and found the following.
1. Voltage at the solenoid seemed good at about 14.5v
2. Voltage in the cables FROM and TO the solenoid was the same 14.5v
3. Voltage at the controller on deck at the windlass (up/down switch) was also 14.5 BEFORE operating the button to go up or down.

Now here is my question ...although voltage is good before operating the motor, it drops drastically when the switch is pushed AND THE MOTOR IS RUNNING. Is this normal.?

As far as I can determine the solenoid is not the problem, or the cables leading to the windlass, or from the battery etc. Is the voltage drop the cause or is this completely normal? And what can I do to resolve the problem? Is the windlass past it's serviceable life?

Thanks in advance for your insight.

[TeddyDiver]

Not sure but I suspect the electric motor. Got one Tigres home which had about the same symptoms untill it quit totally. Now it's waiting to be pimped with hydraulic motor.

[noelex 77]

You are doing the correct thing measuring the voltage under load (this is the important number).
The voltage will always drop under load, ideally this drop should be less than 0.5v even under high load conditions.
The voltage has to get much lower than this to cause the symptoms you have described. What voltage did you measure?

[a64pilot]

Hopefully it ends up being something really easy like a loose / dirty connection

[biggles72]

Hi Nolex77,

Not sure if I'm doing it right. I measured voltage (at the up/down controller next to the windlass) and found...

1. Voltage prior to motor operation 13.5v
2. Voltage AFTER motor operation less than 1v
3. It is a Lofrans Tigres 1200w Windlass.

The controller was a cheap one and the wires were screwed onto the wire rather than soldered. Should the voltage at the controller stay up near 13v? or am I measuring voltage in the wrong place.

Only other solution I see is to remove windlass and measure at wires at the motor.

Suggestions?

[noelex 77]

It certainly sounds like there is a voltage problem, which is good because this is the easiest/ cheapest problem to solve.

You need a voltage measurments while its running. This should ideally be at the winch terminals.

If this is low next try measuring the voltage at the battery terminals (while the winch is running). I suspect this will be low indicating your battery is dead (which is why the voltage is staying so low when the winch stops. The winch draws more than the battery charger can supply) but if the battery voltage is fine the voltage is measured at the solenoid terminals. Basically you are trying to determine where the voltage "disappears". This will rapidly identify if the fault is the battery, solenoid, winch, or one of the connections, but this needs to be done while the winch is running.

If the voltage at the winch terminals is difficult to measure you can check some of the other voltages first.

[mikereed100]

Biggles,

I have the same problem with my Tigress. I too have good voltage at the motor but intermittant, sometimes weak, function. Suspecting worn brushes, I checked them and found that 2 were sticking in their sleeves. I had to destroy them to get them out and am waiting for new brushes from Imtra so I am not yet certain that was the problem, but I am fairly confident it was. Will let you know next week. In the meantime you might see if your brushes move freely. If they don't, carefully remove them and give them a light sanding. (Don't do what I did and pull the wires out of the brushes or you too will get to know the good folks at Imtra). I suspect the click you are hearing is the solenoid working normally.

[biggles72]

I am off boat now. Nolex. I will do as you suggested next time I am on the boat and report back here.

I would have thought if the brushes were the problem it would have developed over time and not suddenly, but I suspect the cheap controller to windlass connection is the culprit. I will remove and try motor function via "hot wire" and see if that makes a difference.

Will let you all know the outcome.

On a side note. Has anyone got a suggestion for a good solid reliable windlass controller. OR tried one of the wireless ones?