lofrane winch problem. sticks on. Help please

[tonkatoy87uk]

Got a lofrane winch.

the firsts set of problems we have had with it is that it would not go. The solonoid would just click. We later found after taking the motor apart to be full of rust and salt. So it got cleaned and brushes cleaned up with fresh gear oil. Put it back on the boat and it has run fine. It started to stick on, on the button. So recently installed a new foot button button. Being a 2 way winch the original button has been cleaned up and now works fine.

But now on winching in, it sticks on and the only way to turn it off is to cut the main power to the solonoid. When your bringing up the anchor on rope and then chain it could get very lethal if you cannot get the rope/chain of the windlass quick enough.

Could the problem be the solonoid or the winch?
when the first set of problems was found with the winch the solonoid got taken apart and checked. all was clean. no corrosion.

Await your thoughts. Thanks Jon

 

[RichardS]

Sticking on is most likely to be a short or fault in the up/down switch.

Richard

 

[john_morris_uk]

Sticking on is most likely to be a short or fault in the up/down switch.

Richard

Or the solenoid!

Lofrans winches have contactors that corrode up if my experience of ours is anything to go by.

 

[Arcady]

Lofrans winches have contactors that corrode up if my experience of ours is anything to go by.

Exactly so in my experience also.

 

[Tranona]

Yes, it will be the control box. You can clean the contacts inside, but the box is not expensive to replace, although you may find a new one is not quite the same as the old - depending on how old it is. The position of the terminals is different which means a bit of reorganisation of the wiring.

 

[sjdtuk]

My loftrans control box failed after a couple of years.
I replaced my control box with a 4x4 winch relay from ebay - somewhat over specced for current.
It can be driven from foot switches, or wireless remote or both.

 

[Neeves]

We had continuing solenoid problems with a Muir winch. It kept corroding or seizing up. We replaced it with an identical model, same issue. We had kept the old one and then simply swapped them round as the issue developed. We also found if when it locked up, stayed on, if we hit the solenoid box sharply, clenched fist, it broke the seized contacts.

We now have a Maxwell and so far no issues.

 

[EdWingfield]

Jon, if your winch works downward, then motor ok. Previously I'd had my Lofrans control box serviced by an electrician which gave it a further 5 yrs of life. But this year I had to replace the control box.

As someone says above - not a difficult job.

 

[KellysEye]

> The solonoid would just click.

Oher reasons for a click are a low battery and dirty/rusty contacts.

 

[RichardS]

Or the solenoid!

Indeed, that is possible .... but I did say "most likely" to be the control switch. The solenoid would be "less likely".

Richard

 

[tonkatoy87uk]

It's not the control switch as they got pulled off in panic mode.

Think I'll try taking the solonoid apart and cleaning again. See what happens

 

[Tranona]

It's not the control switch as they got pulled off in panic mode.

Think I'll try taking the solonoid apart and cleaning again. See what happens

Not sure what you are calling the "control switch". You have the foot or hand switches which are low current, but the actual windlass is operated by solenoids in the control box which is a quite large black plastic covered box usually sited inside the boat. On Bavarias for example it is accessed behind the switch panel at the chart table. The contacts in this burn and stick.

 

[Boz]

It's not the control switch as they got pulled off in panic mode.

Think I'll try taking the solonoid apart and cleaning again. See what happens

Hardly worth the trouble, Winch contactors are cheap enough on Ebay .....

 

[TQA]

If you have Quik foot switches then they may have microswitches in them. They fail ON !

Ask me how how I know this.

 

[tonkatoy87uk]

Thanks.

I meant foot pedals

http://www.marinescene.co.uk/produc...eN9Ji50060xUuDBHEkJiAygKO25lMloEaArlnEALw_wcB


i have 2 of these. they are made up of 2 pressure contact points a washer and a spring.

this was the first thing I thought would be the problem, so removed the cables off the solonoid, which is when I discovered I had to turn the main power off to get the winch to stop. Job for tomorrow

 

[john_q]

> The solonoid would just click.

Oher reasons for a click are a low battery and dirty/rusty contacts.

Or you have not turned on the breaker

 

[Neeves]

If the breaker is not on there should be no power to the windlass at all - so nothing, certainly no click. If you turn your breaker off and you get a click there is something wrong with the wiring.

 

[john_morris_uk]

If the breaker is not on there should be no power to the windlass at all - so nothing, certainly no click. If you turn your breaker off and you get a click there is something wrong with the wiring.

Agree. Unless other peoples are wired very differently. Our breaker isolates the whole thing.

 

[tonkatoy87uk]

taken the solonoid apart and found that the traveling contact has bent and melted around the release spring. So once activated/on it cannot release itself.
Ive swapped the guts around and I'm now out of trouble for time being.

I think the cause of the problem is that the battery's are too far away and the cables are not man enough. This is causing everything to get hot and melt. I will be making the cables bigger and try and find a shorter run from the batterys as well as replace the solonoid as well as installing a breaker and a cutoff switch as the system does not have either atm.

 

[theoldsalt]

If the breaker is not on there should be no power to the windlass at all - so nothing, certainly no click. If you turn your breaker off and you get a click there is something wrong with the wiring.

Certainly not wrong - just different.
My Lofrans Kobra 1000 has 2 separate circuits. One powers the foot switches (low current) the other powers the contol box (high current). If the control box circuit is off and the foot switches are on then I do get just a click at the control box. I know this because sometimes I forget to turn on both circuits.