How to find & fix a short in windlass

[transmitterdan]

Originally Posted by john540

You could take all the 12 volt batteries from the readers of cruisers forum and wire them together in parallel and I wouldn't hesitate to grab the positive and negative terminals.

John,

Things aren't so simple where a large (or even small) motor is concerned. When a motor has it's current interrupted the voltage across the motor can become a lot more than 12 volts. If the interruption is in the ground return to the battery then the negative terminal of the motor can go way below ground. If you happen to be in a path that bypasses the interrupted ground you can get quite a shock and arcing is indeed possible. It's possible that is happening in this case. The challenge is to find the intermittent connection and fix it. It could be in the motor itself or it could be anywhere between the motor and the battery.

[Bestathook]

At the risk of appearing a simpleton, I ask if you cleaned your battery terminals and connectors.

Corrosion on the terminals can cause intermittent flow, varying flow with varying loads, and varying voltage. As components are made to work in a specific voltage range, this can throw "how it should work" out the porthole.

When you say " I disconnected the solenoid and switch, and connected "it" directly" what was the "it"?

Jumping a battery (in the bow) direct to the winch with nothing else in the circuit will tell you if the winch works, Yes or no. You have lots of good advice on what to do with a bad winch.

Add just the solenoid and touch a jumper to the switch terminal on the solenoid from the battery. That will tell you solenoid good or not.

If the solenoid and winch are good, add the switch. If it fails, the switch is bad. If that works, the problem is in your transmission wires, between the battery terminals and the power lines that attach to the solenoid or the switch. Power lines shorted to ground, bad connection, bad breaker/fuse, could be the problem. load and no load behavior or voltage will vary, as does energy available.

Basically, clean ALL terminals, then start with only a battery at the bow and winch, adding one component at a time.

If the primary problem occurred for some time, it could have caused a secondary problem, which confuses troubleshooting a lot. Both problems will have to be resolved.But deal with one piece at a time, and eventually you will find the bad piece(es), and soon have a happy anchor winch.

Others have said most of this, many said it better, but here it is all in one piece. Good luck!

[JusDreaming]

Originally Posted by Bestathook

At the risk of appearing a simpleton, I ask if you cleaned your battery terminals and connectors.

Corrosion on the terminals can cause intermittent flow, varying flow with varying loads, and varying voltage. As components are made to work in a specific voltage range, this can throw "how it should work" out the porthole.

When you say " I disconnected the solenoid and switch, and connected "it" directly" what was the "it"?

Jumping a battery (in the bow) direct to the winch with nothing else in the circuit will tell you if the winch works, Yes or no. You have lots of good advice on what to do with a bad winch.

Add just the solenoid and touch a jumper to the switch terminal on the solenoid from the battery. That will tell you solenoid good or not.

If the solenoid and winch are good, add the switch. If it fails, the switch is bad. If that works, the problem is in your transmission wires, between the battery terminals and the power lines that attach to the solenoid or the switch. Power lines shorted to ground, bad connection, bad breaker/fuse, could be the problem. load and no load behavior or voltage will vary, as does energy available.

Basically, clean ALL terminals, then start with only a battery at the bow and winch, adding one component at a time.

If the primary problem occurred for some time, it could have caused a secondary problem, which confuses troubleshooting a lot. Both problems will have to be resolved.But deal with one piece at a time, and eventually you will find the bad piece(es), and soon have a happy anchor winch.

Others have said most of this, many said it better, but here it is all in one piece. Good luck!

I have a similar problem, mine clicks, but when I manually bump the gypsy forcing the motor, it takes off! So I am assuming it is brushes, yours could be the same

[DeepFrz]

+1 on what Bestathook says.

[pbiJim]

Originally Posted by Cap Erict3

Just to clarify, when you connected directly to the motor without a solenoid, it ran intermittently?

Why then install another solenoid?

The simplest and most common issue is sticking or worn brushes on the motor.

Brushes were my first thought too, or a corroded commutator, which is the part that the brushes run against. Corroded connections in general were my next thought.

Anywhere that you saw a spark is a good place to investigate for a short or a poor connection.

[PamlicoTraveler]

I promised to report back and I think, by golly, we have the damn thing fixed. I was just to the point of giving up and taking the motor off, which would of course mean draining the oil from the gearbox and separating it.

Before doing that I removed the ground connection and used a drill wire brush to clean the connection, but also removed the washers and bolts and replaced them with new ones. That might have been they key.

I then ran another large cable from the grounding post to another post, just give it double grounding. This worked and now everything seems to be working perfectly.

There were so many mysteries and gremlins here, and although my first attempt was to remove and clean the ground post, it really took more than that. The washer and perhaps the bolt were coated with a film of black gunk that apparently served as some sort of isolator from the post. Anyway, as is often the case on a boat, when you start to think about giving up, that is when something works. I had gotten to the point of even researching a new windlass even though I like the durability if this old thing.

Thanks for the help everyone. It gave me ideas to pursue and now it's working. I am going to go back to that 80 foot deep spot and let out all the chain, just to feel even better about the fix.

[hellosailor]

When you reassembled the ground, did you put silicon grease or anything on the parts? That ensures they will not corrode in the future. They still make good metal-to-metal contact displacing the grease, but it prevents any crud from getting a start on them. NeverSeize will work if you have no dielectric grease.

[PamlicoTraveler]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

When you reassembled the ground, did you put silicon grease or anything on the parts? That ensures they will not corrode in the future. They still make good metal-to-metal contact displacing the grease, but it prevents any crud from getting a start on them. NeverSeize will work if you have no dielectric grease.

No I'd didn't but I should have and I will. I just sprayed it with WD-40, but I should do exactly as you say. It's a damp environment. Thanks!

[Cap Erict3]

All sailboats need a jar of Vaseline close at hand.

[captainwireman]

Originally Posted by Cap Erict3

All sailboats need a jar of Vaseline close at hand.

I would spend a few bucks on a bottle and a spare of Noalox but Vaseline is far better than nothing although it does not seem to stand up to conditions as well.