Trouble with KISS wind generator

[Jolly Roger]

Directly after returning to our boat after hurricane Dorian passed Cape Canaveral I noticed the KISS wind generator, high up the main mast, had stopped rotating. I switched it off before we left, to put it into freewheel. The wind speed at the height of the hurricane was about 100 mph locally, so it probably went crazy.
I went up the mast to see if it was just stuck. It was stiff but possible to turn by hand, but even in 15 knts it would not spin on it’s own.
Does anyone please have any hints what to do?
It sounds like bearings to me, could they have overheated and failed in that speed wind?
It’s a devil of a job to get down and back up.

It’s been flawless for ten years I’ve owned the boat.
Thanks in advance. JR

[Dsanduril]

On our KISS the brake switch would only stop the generator spinning up to 30-35 knots of wind. Above that there was enough rotation force to get it spinning again. We took to tying the blades when we received a storm forecast. Water under the bridge for you, but it is sounds like bearings. I know for sure that it would start spinning again at wind speeds well less than hurricane, I would suspect that things got very hot. They're not too hard to replace, but as you said, removing and re-installing will be the time-consuming bits, but I think that's where you need to go.

[chouliha]

We have owned our KISS for 15 years and always tie it off before leaving the boat for any length of time or in a storm. The brake does not work above 25 knots and it just howls like a banshee.

I am afraid you will need to split the case and get into it to see what maybe the problem.

Good luck

[Jolly Roger]

Okay, I brought the KISS down from the mast today and opened the front quite easily. The front bearing is solid and I suspect the rear is the same.
The question is how do you withdraw the armature and get to the rear bearing?
I can’t just pull it out of the windings.

[Jolly Roger]

Hi to Dsanduril and Chouliha,
Just a quick note to tell you I totally dismantled the Kiss and installed new bearings, also a modification to allow it to be easily hoisted back up the mast.
I’ve now written an article about this, which I expect to be published in a boating magazine some time early next year. A preview is here.
WIND GENERATOR
Thanks for your input. JR

[chouliha]

Nicely done. The good thing about a KISS is that all the bearing and seals are available in most bearing shops worldwide.

If you mark each blade with a magic marker 1,2,3 and the hub as well then when you remove the blades you do not need to rebalance when reassemble it. We often remove the blades when leaving the boat for an extended period of time during the cyclone season and never had to rebalance the blades. We put the blade marked 1 onto the aluminum hub marked 1......

[Jolly Roger]

Thanks Chouliha, you are quite right about the blades, and I would have brought them down if I had thought of it at the time. As it is I’ve made a note in the article.
I’ll be hauling it back up the mast some time mid December, when we can be fairly sure there is no more nasties coming our way.

[Dsanduril]

Too late for your case, but in case someone searches this thread in future...

When I had the rotor out I took it to a machine shop and had them balance the rotor. The KISS units were rather crudely built, it took several grams on one side to correct. That made a big difference to total vibration and simplified balancing the blades.