Lofrans Cayman 1000W on 1999 Bav ... help please.

[Baggywrinkle]

Grrrr. Anchor winch stopped working, went intermittent then failed. Had to pull anchor up by hand. Symptoms are, I switch on the anchor winch at switch panel, led lights solid green. Press button on wired remote and led goes off, winch will not operate. Button pressed led-off, button released led-on. Need to leave boat but have a couple of hours to look at it tomorrow. Any suggestions gratefully received. Heeeeelllllllpppp!!

 

[superheat6k]

Sounds like a poor connection somewhere. Letting small amount flow to LEDs when off, but when the surge to run the motor is required the current can't get through.

Manual here if needed ...

http://turbo36.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/lofrans-cayman-tigre.pdf

 

[Tranona]

If it is not dirty connections it is almost certainly the contacts in the control box burned. Very common problem. Can sometimes be unstuck and cleaned. Control box is behind the switch panel. Fairly cheap to replace, but the new ones are a different shape and can be tricky to get the cables to line up. Guess how I know!

While thinking about your windlass, check the mounting as it sits on a rubber pad - ideal for holding water and rotting the bottom of the casing. I had to replace my complete windlass partly because of that. Spares are difficult to come by because Lofrans recently changed ownership following bankruptcy of its previous owner.

 

[Baggywrinkle]

Thanks for the replies .... fault traced to the alternator feed wire which feeds the remote with 12v when the engine is running. Not enough ooomph to drive the solenoids in the control box. Direct 12v feed from batteries works fine, all heavy duty connections and windlass motor are fine.

So now I need to find out why the alternator feed is no longer working properly, I suspect it's not charging the batteries either ... the engine and saildrive were out to replace the saildrive seal a few weeks back so it's going to need checking.

 

[Bav32]

Suggest that you check out the earth connection to the alternator. This almost certainly would have been disconnected when you hauled out the engine. The symptoms you have are a classic high resistance connection.

 

[Baggywrinkle]

@Bav 32 - I'm no longer on the boat unfortunately. It was the workshop at the marina that replaced the seal so I'll e-mail them to check the alternator earth and charging circuit.

I've switched the remote back to the original switch panel wiring (+12V for the anchor windlass sourced from the batteries rather than the alternator) and it all works - advantage is I can now anchor under sail, disadvantage is that I could flatten the batteries quite quickly if I use the windlass too much without the engine running. I guess it was wired that way so charter customers had to run the engine to use the windlass - but it's no longer in charter and I'm not that daft (I hope) to destroy the batteries using the windlass - it's nice to have full anchor control without the engine running anyway, just in case - hauling the chain and anchor up manually in deep water was no fun.

@Tranona - thanks for the advice on the corrosion - that's been added to the list of 'little' jobs I need to do over the summer. I opened up the control box and after I'd recovered all the parts that sprung out and rolled around the chart table, it all looked pretty clean apart from the contacts themselves which had a bit of 'metal transfer' but no scorching or blackening and the solenoids engaged with some force and a loud 'clack'. I can imagine that a high-resistance connection to the solenoids may indeed lead to weaker operation and then arcing between contacts - but mine seems fine at the moment. The control box was exactly where you said and easily accessible, as was all wiring from anchor locker to control panel, to alternator. I do love these mass produced AWBs - makes fixing things a bit easier

@Superheat6K - Thanks for the link to the manual, the wiring diagram made everything much clearer and stemmed the panic somewhat. When something unexpectedly fails, a bit of concrete info makes a great starting point for diagnosis - so we rattled through the wiring on Sunday morning and identified the fault pretty quickly. I now know my windlass wiring and operation inside out and have also identified how to bypass the control box with a stout screwdriver (should it ever fail) and the remote too.

Altogether an excellent learning experience - I do like the forums.