How tight should a windlass clutch be?

[gregcope]

Hi,

We have a Lewmar Pro-Series 1000 Windlass. I find the clutch slips allot, to the point I often have to hand haul in.

It has a wrench, to tighten the clutch, but the instructions do not appear to suggest how tight one should make it.

I have serviced it, which involves greasing some parts.

Any advice? Doing it hand tight (allot) just means its slips when it feels like.

Thoughts?

 

[Robih]

Keep grease off the clutch faces. Tighten the clutch until it doesn’t slip under normal load.

 

[westernman]

Hi,

We have a Lewmar Pro-Series 1000 Windlass. I find the clutch slips allot, to the point I often have to hand haul in.

It has a wrench, to tighten the clutch, but the instructions do not appear to suggest how tight one should make it.

I have serviced it, which involves greasing some parts.

Any advice? Doing it hand tight (allot) just means its slips when it feels like.

Thoughts?

Have you greased something which you should not have done???

 

[gregcope]

Have you greased something which you should not have done???

The manual says to grease the bearing services…

 

[gregcope]

Keep grease off the clutch faces. Tighten the clutch until it doesn’t slip under normal load.

the manual says to grease the bearing services. But what your suggesting is dont (ie only where the pins are).

 

[noelex]

Many anchor windlass clutches are tightened using a lever action. My Maxwell windlass came with a lever arm around a metre long! This was for both tightening the clutch and operating the windlass manually. The long lever arm was no doubt primarily designed for the latter purpose.

I have made a short clutch lever which is much more practical for the routine tightening the windlass clutch. The cone clutch is kept well greased, as I believe it should be, but even using this short clutch lever the windlass can be tightened to retrieve even a heavy load.

 

[Sandy]

Thoughts?

Would you grease brakes?

 

[noelex]

Would you grease brakes?

Windlass clutches are not the same as car brakes.

See here:
Maxwell Winch Maintenance Guide

Below is a quote from the guide:
"Periodic greasing of the clutch cones with a waterproof marine grease is essential."

 

[Deleted member 36384]

Mine has a cone type clutch (which sits in the oil bath shared with the gears) and it needs the lever to be quite firm so that the gypsy doesn’t slip. However, the manual is clear that excessive force could yield the shaft.

 

[Neeves]

How tight - how long is a piece of string?

Simply drop your anchor and chain until the anchor sits on the bottom.

Tighten the clutch until the anchor and chain can be retrieved with out it slipping, so progressively tighten till you are happy. I'd then tighten a 'little' bit more as you may find that you need more grunt to break the anchor out. But better to use something to take the load off the windlass, my hook and strop, see below, rather than stress the windlass.

The clutch can still slip - the windlass vibrates a lot and expect to re-tighten the clutch with time. You should not rely on the clutch to hold the anchor when at sea - you need something too ensure the clutch is not restraining the anchor - a bit of rope will do lashing the anchor. We use a chain hook on a short strop attached to a strong point and then loosen the load on the windlass (or it will be under tension all the time). We use the same hook and strop as back up when we are at anchor.

We have a smaller version of Noelex retrieval device, we too have a Maxwell, to both tighten the clutch and retreive the chain manually - its much easier to haul the chain up by hand (but then its only 6mm chain). Our device is a 'special' winch handle - so special that a normal winch handle will not fit.

Remember windlass should be serviced approximately annually. Its easy to do. Clean, check gearbox oil, clean and grease shaft. I'd also check the wiring for corrosion - the windlass is located in the wettest part of the yacht.


As an aside - Maxwell run a 24/365 service. Someone, somewhere is on call - especially at weekends, and holidays. Maxwell know their windlass are leisure devices and people take their leisure at weekends and holidays (Xmas). If you have an issue and own a Maxwell windlass - contact them direct, email, at their head office - and you will have more support then you need. We have used them once, loose connection (my fault I installed) - but they gave me a list of connections to check in order. I know of another issue where the stripper arm was connected incorrectly (again owner installation) - solved through simply sending a photo.

Take care, stay safe

Jonathan

 

[gregcope]

So sounds like I should use the wrench to tighten. Using that i can get 1/4 turn tighter. I think that would help allot.

 

[Tranona]

Have no problem with mine in this respect although it has just burned out a motor. The clutch is dead simple and is not near any parts that need greasing so should not be contaminated. You could take it apart and clean the faces. Lewmar do a replacement kit, although doubt it would need that.

 

[penfold]

The lewmar manual is badly written; I'd say it tells you not to grease the clutch cones, but it's a really awful bit of technical writing, whoever wrote it should be ashamed. The diagrams are awful too, no excuse for that in the age of CAD.

 

[noelex]

BTW, this is a photo of the short windlass clutch lever I made. As can be seen by the wear and tear, it receives far more use than the standard long windlass clutch lever supplied by the manufacturer.

Making one is easy and a worthwhile addition if you have a larger vertical Maxwell windlass.

 

[gregcope]

So the manual states;

"Re-Assemble, use grease to hold the drive pins (43) in place and small amount on the mating faces."

Which I read to mean lightly grease the faces of the gypsy cone that presses on the gypsy.

It also states;

"rotating the capstan drive cap clockwise until tight and remove the wrench handle."

However it neglects to say what "tight" means. I can turn it another 1/4 turn at least from hand tight to tight (tight) using the wrench handle. I have turned it 1/8 (ie about half what is possible) and will see what gives.

I can imagine tightening it too tight will mean very reduced clutch operation with possible motor damage.

 

[noelex]

So the manual states;

"Re-Assemble, use grease to hold the drive pins (43) in place and small amount on the mating faces."

Which I read to mean lightly grease the faces of the gypsy cone that presses on the gypsy.

It also states;

"rotating the capstan drive cap clockwise until tight and remove the wrench handle."

However it neglects to say what "tight" means. I can turn it another 1/4 turn at least from hand tight to tight (tight) using the wrench handle. I have turned it 1/8 (ie about half what is possible) and will see what gives.

I can imagine tightening it too tight will mean very reduced clutch operation with possible motor damage.

Keep the clutch just tight enough to avoid it slipping.

I adjust the clutch several times when picking up or deploying the anchor depending on the force required from the anchor winch.

 

[penfold]

To me that means you clean everything, reassemble dry up to the point the stupid fiddly pins are needed, then you glue them onto the shaft with blobs of grease and fit the outer cone etc. Bottom line it's terrible technical writing and is not at all clear what they actually intend you to do; given it isn't working as you desire with the cones greased I'd suggest trying with them dry. A phonecall or email to Lewmar's tech support will clear things up.

 

[Martin_J]

I have always greased the cones/gypsy faces on the Lofrans windlass. It makes controlling the manual deployment much smoother, prevents big shock loads when deploying and you drop back on the anchor and also stops the faces corroding and sticking.

I know it's a different manufacturer but Vetus make it clearer in their windlass instructions

 

[Venus1]

Following this, as I have had conflicting expert advice on whether or not to grease the clutch cones.
The ”average” advice seems to be to use a bit of grease - sparingly??

 

[sailorbenji]

Following this, as I have had conflicting expert advice on whether or not to grease the clutch cones.
The ”average” advice seems to be to use a bit of grease - sparingly??

Correct. I actually wrote (most of) the Pro-Series manual back when I worked there...I think it's pretty clear but clearly not everyone does, despite paraphrasing exactly the correct procedure from the manual text.

The actual root cause of the OP's slipping issue though, is that the clutch nut definitely needs doing up more than "hand tight", whether there's grease on the mating faces or not. Again, clear in the manual that the clutch lever should be used for this operation.

Just to be clear, the blob of grease to stick the drive pins in place for Pro-Series is simply to aid re-assembly, otherwise you need 15 fingers or patience. The small amount on mating surfaces simply makes the release and control of the gypsy speed via the clutch a bit more linear and predictable. It's not strictly necessary and if you were really struggling for grip, you could clean it out without any real adverse affect. The key thing with windlass clutches is simply to actually use them now and again, to prevent them seizing with salt build up etc.