Got a Lofrans windlass?

snowleopard

snowleopard

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If so, dismantle it now, don't wait till it goes wrong!!

Mine stopped working at the end of last season and it has just taken me NINE HOURS to split the shaft from the motor. It's a stainless shaft in a bronze socket and it took me every trick I know and a few I had to invent to apply sufficient force to budge it a few thou at a time. Next time it will be well greased and dismantled every couple of years.

I still have to figure out a way of freeing the cone clutch on the gypsy. I never use the warping drum and always use power drop rather than free fall so I hadn't released the clutch for a while and the bronze nut has seized onto the stainless shaft.

You have been warned!
 
Well done Snowleopard, I have the SL Anchorman which i believe is similar, and failed to move the shaft at all with a 2 ton jack below the shaft pushing up, 2 crowbars and several wedges on deck between the deck and base plate and using blowlamp then freeze-it spray on the shaft. I shall continue to use it until it fails completely then cut it off above deck with a disc cutter and get a new one!
 
Heat is usually the answer. Struggled for ages with a similar sort of problem with a Norton gearbox until SWMBO bought me the owners club video and I could see that my efforts with the blowlamp were nothing like serious enough. I was funking it. As soon as I copied the video, no problems at all.
 
Interesting, I never took mine apart but suspect I might have had similar problems.

What size is the bush/bearing? do you fancy trying a composite? I might have some offcuts you could try. Or I could get one made up as a trial piece. Could be a new market.
 
That explains something. When I bought my boat I talked with the engineer who did a lot of the technical work for the German charter company I bought it from. He told me that each winter they removed the windlasses from all their boats to clean and service them. I did the same last winter but did not attempt to remove the shaft, only cleaned it all and changed the oil. Probably because it gets used occasionally the cone clutch frees easily.
 
Maybe the answer is to use the clutch a little more when anchoring. And / or the warping drum, only way I can set and recover two anchors. I've had mine for 5 + yeras without a problem and yes,- I've just now gone and tested it.
 
Personally I cannot understand why anyone would power an anchor down, when gravity does the job so much better.
 
I drop it under power - from the wheelhouse, so it depends on where you usually stand, doesn't it.
Any of you with failed units got a cover ? One of the first things I did after installation was to make a tight cover, so I don't get too much down the pipe, and the worst of the elements are kept off the unit.
 
Was that due to lack of use? We use ours a lot and so far it seems fine. I have made some inquiries about servicing and lubrication but was told that apart from taking off the gipsy and rope barrel assemblym, there isn't much you can do.
 
The clutch on the gypsy seized because I never release it and hadn't realised I should take it apart and re-grease every 3 months. The shaft seized into the gearbox because it had never been taken apart. In future I will remove both and re-grease regularly.

I finally got the clutch apart today. I drilled through the socket and poured diesel in so it could reach the threads, applied a lot of heat and used an air wrench. The nut was knackered as was the seal around it and it turned out the cone clutch was cracked. The final cost will be around £180.

Both the problems were the result of a bronze component being a tight fit on the stainless shaft and corrosion forming between the two.
 
I have a Leopard vertical. It's been on the boat for 6 years (year round use) and I've never had it serviced.It goes up and down as requested.

Am I about to get my NON comeuppance ??
 
Mine had been fine for 7 years. The trouble started when the motor stopped working and had to be removed from the boat for repair (corroded terminals).
 
I had aserious look at our LOFRANS KOBRA today

We bought the boat last season. The winch goes up and down fine under power. It goes up manually.
BUT I cannot undo the clutch tri handle to allow the chain to free wheel down. I suspect it has never been used or maintained

Today inspired by this thread I tried penetrating oil for 24 hours, heat gun on the threaded spindle end, heat gun on clutch itselfand alarge mallet etc

It will not budge an inch

We are about to go long term cruising with alot of anchoring, do I get an engineer to apply major violence to it to get this spindle to move or do I just carry on using electric on the basis that it is working 80%

I feel I want it to work in all modes, but will the forces required to unseize this destroy something else?and end up with needing other parts?
 
NormanS said:
Personally I cannot understand why anyone would power an anchor down, when gravity does the job so much better.
Click to expand...

As well as giving more control, when you get older you will find that scrabbling around on the foredeck is less fun than it used to be.
 
the lloyds said:
BUT I cannot undo the clutch tri handle to allow the chain to free wheel down.
Click to expand...


I regularly use the handle to allow the chain to free-fall and it always works.
At the beginning of the season though, after I totally unscrew the three prong lock, some times the chain gypsy would not move a millimeter, no matter what I try.
Then all of a sudden for some unknown reason it begins to freewheel, and there you go for the rest of the season.

Just to give an indication that possibly a severe force is not needed to free the clutch.
 
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