Fixing intermittent stuck anemometer

I

Interlude

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Tricky spelling that!

Does anyone have any advice on which cleaning agent or lubricant to use to clean the mast head wind speed sensor? I mean the bearing on the little three cup spinning unit.

It is a wireless Tak Tic device, pre their purchase by Raymarine. The wind direction vane is still OK, but indicated speed switches from 0 to whatever, and I can see the device not moving when showing 0 kts. I suspect dirt or a spider web fouling the bearing.

Options I have are water, WD40 or McLube (both of which will leave a residue) or my favourite, CRC Contact Cleaner.

I am sending someone up to have a look in a day or so, and would welcome any advice.
 
I've supplied a couple of these bearings recently. In both cases the owner had tried to clean the bearings by various means without success. As far as I can tell, they do just wear out but happy to hear otherwise. Replacement bearing is probably TA122, around £80.
 
I've just had to change the bearing in my B&G unit for exactly the same reason. It took me about 5 mins once I'd brought the masthead unit back down although I understand that some can be a bit of a pain to do.
I bet you can get a service kit for it...
 
I have replaced the bearings on a Tacktick unit, the bearings are not stainless and therefore it was rust that was the problem in my case, as stated above by Mike, depending on the age of the unit there is the replacement bearing pack you can buy. However, if you are tight like me, then it is possible to strip it down and just replace the bearings, I replaced mine with ceramic bearings (cost about £10 in parts rather than £70 unit) to hopefully avoid a repeat of it rusting up in the future.
 
As others have said, if they are like the bearings in my Raymarine ST60 unit, they will be small ball bearings, hopefully stainless, but the sort with cover plates on both side so that there is no access to the balls themselves. The seals are supposed to keep the original grease sealed inside but when it does eventually seep or dry out, there is no way to get new lubricant in.

An aerosol lubricant might be able to inject a little grease past the seals if you could get the nozzle close enough to the bearings, which I doubt will be possible it situ, but it would be a very temporary solution. Bearing replacement is the only realistic solution.

Richard
 
Ours stopped recording anything below 3-4 knots.

I watched and followed the following video and found absolutely minor corrosion on the shaft.

I cleaned it all up and purely by chance when I took it back the boat the breeze at deck level was light and fitful.

It worked perfectly :encouragement:

 
MikeCC said:
I've supplied a couple of these bearings recently. In both cases the owner had tried to clean the bearings by various means without success. As far as I can tell, they do just wear out but happy to hear otherwise. Replacement bearing is probably TA122, around £80.
Click to expand...

I got four bearings for my B&G unit, two to use and two for spares, for about ten quid online.

I think it was simplybearings.co.uk.
 
davidej said:
I got four bearings for my B&G unit, two to use and two for spares, for about ten quid online.

I think it was simplybearings.co.uk.
Click to expand...
Good idea to keep spares. I expect you have to pull it apart to get the dimensions. You didn’t keep a record did you?
 
If it has small ballrace bearings, measure them. You need three measurements, overall diameter, shaft diameter and thickness of the race. All stainless bearings are quite cheap. The ones in my old VDO wind instrument are 8mm OD, 3mm shaft X 4mm thick and cost a few ££ a pair from e-bay.
 
XDC said:
Ours stopped recording anything below 3-4 knots.

I watched and followed the following video and found absolutely minor corrosion on the shaft.

I cleaned it all up and purely by chance when I took it back the boat the breeze at deck level was light and fitful.

It worked perfectly :encouragement:

Click to expand...

I'm pleased that yours is working again but removing minor corrosion on the shaft does not resolve a problem with the bearings as the bearings shown in the video are sealed ball bearings rather than plain shaft bearings.

Unless you are marooned on a desert island, I can't see the point of removing the two ball bearings and then trying to clean them and get more oil past the seals. Getting the old bearings out is the difficult bit so once they are out, new ones are so cheap that you might as well replace them. :)

Richard
 
Oil can be the cause of sticking particularly if any dirt gets in to mix with it.
My VDO unit has stainless ball races which might have had oil in when new, but the advice I had was to wash them in hot water with washing up liquid to get rid of any oil as they will run perfectly well dry. Just replace when badly worn. I replaced mine at least five years ago and they have run dry since with no problem, only taken down for the winter months.
 
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