Windlass Has No Power

[Squanderbucks]

I'm with Scout30. How many feet from your batteries is your windlass? My 38 footer has about a 22 ft one way cable run to a Lewmar Sprint 1000 which uses a 75 AMP circuit breaker.
!. Check Breaker or Fuse
2. Have someone press the switch and check terminals on the UP down Solenoid for power
3. If power there then do same for the cables at the windlass motor connection.
4. If still now power at motor despite power at solenoid the a break in the cable. - Do continuity and resistance check on each cable.
5. If there is power to motor but it just wont spin over - check the motor brushes - usually unscrew through a cap on each side ( mark L and R) - if shot but not fully burned down to copper may consider removing motor and having it serviced - likely a new motor.
6. While at it consider removing entire windlass and replace water seals and check bearings, and grease gears. you may want to do this anyway if you are considering a motor replacement to make sure you aren't putting good money after bad.

If getting the motor off and looking at things on the table seems like a big job then just get a new one and install it using the same wiring as long as the cable size is what meets the new windlass standards. Mine uses battery cables run from the solenoid to the bow - not cheap but less than installing extra batteries up front and then having to wire charging circuits up to them as well with all that entails.

If what is there worked for 30+ years updating and repairing the same type of configuration should be fine.

[Lepke]

With 12 volt DC there's a good chance you just have a corroded connection (pos or neg) somewhere. The next place to check is the solenoid. A battery close to the winch solves many problems.
If you have a generator or decent inverter, switching the winch motor to 120/240 AC solves many problems with wire run lengths, solenoids, dc motors, etc. I did.

[Deltasailor]

Originally Posted by boatpoker

Never seen that anywhere except on a Euroboat which is not what the OP has.

Quite common on charter boats, sometimes the fridge won't work without the engine.