Clicking windlass solenoid

nigelmercier said:
Until you get home and order a new one.
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Oh dear, ours is several years overdue.

Actually I think you are being a little harsh as lots of contractors and relays can have their contacts cleaned/dressed and reset. Our Lofrans solenoid is pretty agricultural inside and its cleaned up very well. Still working several years later and I have no reason to think its going to stop anytime soon.
 
nigelmercier said:
I have exactly the same problem with my Lofrans Tigres, it lifts the anchor fine, but sometimes won't drop it.

See this YouTube video (made before I realised that it was Tigres rather than Tigress) :) http://youtu.be/cSg3Dg5N2zE

It is caused by the dog-clutch inside the windlass, I have been sent some pictures by Lofrans on a modification to remove the spring inside and replace it with a spacer, but I think a stronger spring is the answer.
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Nigel,

could you please sent me these pics on the modification?
Mine after a full rebuilt (er, new bushes, seals, weld on the stripper base, new stripper, rub and clean) is still at my garage floor getting ready to be reassembled and filled with oil, so easy to do the mod. reason I opened it in the first place was oil leaking and not dropping the anchor...

cheers

V.
 
Basics

It sounds very much like a lack of battery volts- equivalent to a chattering starter solenoid on a car with a duff battery. I assume you have the engine running and / or there are good batteries powering this heavy load?
 
Quick update:

I cleaned the solenoid as previously described, and then had a friend look at it who's an anchor next to me. He knows more about these things and said the contacts were a little dodgy, and fixed what he thought could have been the problem. Seems he did the right thing because now the solenoid is working once more.

Here's the weird thing though: I think we have a problem with the breaker because things only work when I by-pass it. The breaker, btw, is rated at 60amps, which is pretty low for a 1500w motor. It frequently tripped, presumably due to resistance and corrosion in the original power cable, which I have since cleaned. When I by-passed the breaker using the new thick battery cable directly on the motor is was drawing a consistent 60amps. Well, if this is the case then no wonder the breaker was constantly tripping.

Anyway, with the cleaned solenoid and by-passing the breaker it seems things are ok. That was a cursory test only, however. The real test will be when I come to weight anchor in a couple of days and see if it pulls up all 30m without the solenoid packing up on me.

I'll keep you posted, but in the meantime thanks all for your assistance. Reckon I'll be buying a spare solenoid when I reach SA.
 
demonboy said:
Quick update:

I cleaned the solenoid as previously described, and then had a friend look at it who's an anchor next to me. He knows more about these things and said the contacts were a little dodgy, and fixed what he thought could have been the problem. Seems he did the right thing because now the solenoid is working once more.

Here's the weird thing though: I think we have a problem with the breaker because things only work when I by-pass it. The breaker, btw, is rated at 60amps, which is pretty low for a 1500w motor. It frequently tripped, presumably due to resistance and corrosion in the original power cable, which I have since cleaned. When I by-passed the breaker using the new thick battery cable directly on the motor is was drawing a consistent 60amps. Well, if this is the case then no wonder the breaker was constantly tripping.

Anyway, with the cleaned solenoid and by-passing the breaker it seems things are ok. That was a cursory test only, however. The real test will be when I come to weight anchor in a couple of days and see if it pulls up all 30m without the solenoid packing up on me.

I'll keep you posted, but in the meantime thanks all for your assistance. Reckon I'll be buying a spare solenoid when I reach SA.
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I hope you will forgive me expressing one thought!

I hope you motor (or possibly sail?) up to the anchor as the windlass brings the chain in. I don't think any windlass is designed to pull the boat up to the anchor... Certainly on ships with hugely powerful windlasses, the ship is driven up towards the anchor to take the strain off the windlass and good seamanship suggests we do the same with yachts and motorboats.

The current demanded by the windlass will be very high indeed if its pulling the boat forward...

Just a thought.

PS 1500 watts is over 100 amps at 13.8 volts so your 60 amp breaker is significantly underrated.
 
"Reckon I'll be buying a spare solenoid when I reach SA"

I can help with that if you like. Don't buy a "marine" one I use industrial DC contactor on mine.
 
john_morris_uk said:
I hope you will forgive me expressing one thought!

I hope you motor (or possibly sail?) up to the anchor as the windlass brings the chain in. I don't think any windlass is designed to pull the boat up to the anchor... Certainly on ships with hugely powerful windlasses, the ship is driven up towards the anchor to take the strain off the windlass and good seamanship suggests we do the same with yachts and motorboats.

The current demanded by the windlass will be very high indeed if its pulling the boat forward...

Just a thought.

PS 1500 watts is over 100 amps at 13.8 volts so your 60 amp breaker is significantly underrated.
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I'll forgive you, John. Been doing this a fair few years now! As I said in a previous post I too believe the breaker is under-rated. I don't know the history of my boat's previous installations but I suspect the windlass was a retro-fit using the original breaker.
 
demonboy said:
I'll forgive you, John. Been doing this a fair few years now! As I said in a previous post I too believe the breaker is under-rated. I don't know the history of my boat's previous installations but I suspect the windlass was a retro-fit using the original breaker.
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Thank you. It's impossible to know how long people have been sailing or what they are like from the bare post and pulling the boat up to the anchor is a common mistake.

I ought to add that I am very happy to admit I am still learning after a 'few' years sailing.
 
I'm never too proud to ask a dumb question, John. I'm no fool and there's much I know about sailing, but I'm not here to prove anything. Always learning. I remember a skipper once telling me when I first started sailing 'the day you think you know everything about boats is the day you should quit'. I've met quite a few sailors who'd do well to heed this advice.

Cheers for the replies. We weigh tomorrow for a 140nm trip south to the next atoll, so we'll put that solenoid to the test.
 
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