Windlass brushes

[janis]

I have a Lewmar Pro-Fish 1000 Gen 2 windlass, and one of the motor brushes needs to be replaced. I contacted Lewmar for spare brushes, but they don’t offer them. Lewmar’s brush supplier is a company called Khans, but I couldn’t find any information about them online.

Do you have any suggestions on where I could buy suitable replacement brushes? The dimensions are 9x6x16 mm.

[stevead]

Try SL Spares

Even though they mainly have spare parts for older Simpson Lawrence windlasses, they might be able to source replacement brushes for your windlass motor.

[Nekton73]

I haven't been able to find a diagram of the windlass motor so unable to know exactly what style of lead (i.e. sprung, unsprung, contact type) you need, but there are hundreds of sizes and styles available on amazon. Here's a set of the right dimensions:

https://www.amazon.ca/uxcell2-Pairs-...s%2C151&sr=8-5
Professor Google says this is the correct replacement motor should you need to go that route:

https://www.fisheriessupply.com/lewm...OHKq6pqqhlnG0e

[janis]

The brushes look like this (in attached pictures). I was wondering if they're made from a specific material, as our local generator repair shop said they don't have suitable ones and suggested I look elsewhere.

[pcmm]

Have you tried taking the motor to an automotive starter repair shop?

[jt11791]

Brushes are made of graphite. If you don't find the correct size, find a set that is larger and you can cut them down to size. Graphite is easily shaped by sanding or filing (very messy though).

[Nekton73]

Those look exactly like the ones I linked for you above. You’ll have to unsolder the old leads and solder the new ones, but otherwise they should work.

[PippaB]

Originally Posted by pcmm

Have you tried taking the motor to an automotive starter repair shop?

+1

Windlass motor brushes are generally not straight carbon brushes. Haven't seen one that is, but always a first time for everything, especially for a small windlass.

Carbon brushes cannot handle the high currents demanded by windlasses. So windlasses generally use a "copper" motor brush. These still contain carbon, but have a high concentration of copper to improve conductivity.

This is a requirement shared with starter motors. Most (all?) windlass motor brushes I have encountered are not special, and were sourced from some starter motor series. Our own windlass uses brushes from a Bosch line (and I am sure not made by them). If you take the brushes to a good automotive or tractor electrical repair place, one that actually rebuilds starters, they should be able to source, or fabricate from bulk stock, suitable replacements - and they should not cost much.

Check out this reference on brushes, most windlass/starter use a "CG" material:

https://us.mersen.com/sites/default/...ide-mersen.pdf