Getting Windlass working again

[wgerstmyer]

After winter storage of my Brewer 12.8 (meters) my windlass doesn’t work. It has 13v at the solenoid. I took a battery and briefly touched the heavy wires to those of the windlass and it worked for a second so I believed the problem was either loose connection, solenoid, or bow deck switch.
I installed a new deck switch but decided I’d be happy to move a battery to within feet of the bow/ windlass.
I also though I could wire the positive heavy wires from battery to the switch to the positive windlass wire; and the battery negative wire directly to the windlass negative wire.
When pressing the foot switch I got the windlass to work for a second a couple times, then nothing.
It is a 2023 780 CCA battery but perhaps it does not supply enough amps?
I have since read it is not smart bro not have the solenoid off the switch as I could burn out the switch—but while I will do that, that doesn’t explain why my experiment didn’t work.
Any suggestions to test the solenoid? Any suggestions to get windlass back working?
A next question: if I understand correctly, the negative small wire off the solenoid should run back to the house bank or a closer bus bar, correct?
Thanks in advance!

[Bowdrie]

ABYC wants to see the power thru the foot switch that energizes the solenoid to come from a dedicated breaker, not supplied from the windlass hot cable.
In other words, the foot switch and solenoid are their own dedicated circuit both from and back to the panel.

[wgerstmyer]

So my inexperience will show here but here goes: my foot switch has two terminals: I bring small positive wire from the Panel to one terminal, and a positive wire from the other terminal goes to positive on the solenoid; negative wire goes from House directly to solenoid negative, correct?
I have a massive WINDLASS switch near the panel; when I turn it on I get 13v at the heavy cables entering the solenoid—so that is already correct, yes?

[Bowdrie]

Originally Posted by wgerstmyer

So my inexperience will show here but here goes: my foot switch has two terminals: I bring small positive wire from the Panel to one terminal, and a positive wire from the other terminal goes to positive on the solenoid; negative wire goes from House directly to solenoid negative, correct?
I have a massive WINDLASS switch near the panel; when I turn it on I get 13v at the heavy cables entering the solenoid—so that is already correct, yes?

Yes, The big windlass switch only furnishes power to one of the BIG connections on the solenoid, the other BIG connection on the solenoid going to the windlass, no other wires should be on those terminals.
There should be a breaker for that main power.
The footswitch and the magnetic winding in the soleniod are a separate curcuit with their own breaker.
This pic shows the type of soleniod you want, notice that there are two small terminals.
This means that the circuit for energizing the soleniod is completely separate both positive and negative from the two BIG connections which feed the positive DC to the windlass.

[wgerstmyer]

Yes, that’s the solenoid I have. Any test I can do to confirm if it’s working?
To make sure I understand: the big red WINDLASS switch by my panel is NOT the breaker you’re talking about? There should be a breaker feeding that switch?

[Bowdrie]

Originally Posted by wgerstmyer

Yes, that’s the solenoid I have. Any test I can do to confirm if it’s working?
To make sure I understand: the big red WINDLASS switch by my panel is NOT the breaker you’re talking about? There should be a breaker feeding that switch?

The solenoid is basically an electromagnet, if the primary side, (small terminals,) is working the case should attract a steel object when energized.
If so, a continuity check with your multimeter will confirm if the big terminals are switching off/on when power is applied/removed from the small terminals.
You generally don't find a breaker with the capacity to run a windlass on your main electrical panel.
They're usually a remote breaker specifically made as windlass breakers.
The manufacturers of windlass's all have their own devices with mounting instructions.
Some older designs, (like Ideal,) had the windlass switch incorporated in a chrome panel with a built-in circuit breaker that used a push-button reset.
Others such as Blue Sea make stand-alone breakers.
Others here can provide more detailed info about locations of breakers or fuses that are carrying heavy current.
You do want some sort of protection close to the original source of power.

[bglad]

If the motor has serviceable brushes, they may be stuck. Sometimes a little love with a mallet will vibrate them back in place. If that is the case, clean or replace them.

[desodave]

I had my solenoid replaced twice before we discovered that a lug had been poorly crimped onto one of the main cables (probably the original installation) ... check your connections carefully. The windlass quit going down but would bring the anchor up (thankfully! ). The connection was covered with shrink wrap which was holding it sort of in place and not obvious.

[catsketcher]

My winch was going slowly. It is a newish (5 years) Maxwell.

I don't have a foot switch but I used a small battery to

- power the solenoid - no improvement
- power the other side of the solenoid - no improvement
- power the winch terminals themselves - no improvement

My winch is okay to remove so I took it into the cabin. The brushes looked okay but I had no more tricks to apply. So I removed them, cleaned them a little with some fine wet and dry. Then I used copious quantities of electrical cleaner (WD40) and pushed the fine wet and dry down onto the copper armature and spun the motor so that it sanded the armature. It came up much cleaner.

Re-assembled it all and it works like a new one. The amount of oxidation on the armature was minimal but the extra resistance caused a voltage drop of over 1 volt when the winch was working.

cheers

Phil