Lofrans Royal Windlass malfunction question

[mattonthesea]

Two things have started happening which I think R related: the clutch handle has started seizing when lowering the anchor; and the handle ring has turned so that the slot for the handle can be at the bottom!

Just before this happened I noticed the pawls seemed to be clunky when raising the anchor out of the mud.

Most likely needs servicing but I don't know how and the instruction manual doesn't cover it. Nigel Calder is only slight help.

So, is a manual online; or could anyone give me a rough outline of what to do. BTW it's not going to leave the foredeck without a massive struggle!

Thanks
M

 

[Gsailor]

I have one that I will be selling when I find it; mint condition only used on fresh water boat.

I did service it; it was easy.

There was online help (that I don't have access to at moment - try Google)

Hopefully you don't have the dreaded aluminium corrosion I have read about.

Strange about the handle position altering. (You do mean handle HOLE as in round not a slot, don't you?)

Do some internet searching.

Hope you find it as easy to service as I did once you find a guide (just remembered... there was a website that showed a complete strip down with photos or what to touch and undo and what not to touch).

Sorry not to have the links available.

Hopefully still on the net somewhere.

 

[Neeves]

Google really is useful if you use it

Top of the listings

Servicing is, as Gsailor said, usually very simple. You would normally need to clean the whole unit, strip out, clean and grease the shaft and check the gear box oil, refill if necessary - and do this at least annually. Most windlass are not serviced annually, or not the ones I see in Oz (which is usually why I'm asked to help). If you are feeling depressed about the whole thing - they are usually very robust and seem to survive quite well without much attention.

Good luck

Jonathan

 

[C08]

That looks an excellent u tube demo. When I did mine the 2 plastic bushes were tight on the shafts due to a tiny amount of corrosion in the housings that caused the windlass be very tight to operate. The service spares are remarkably cheap. Very good advice about the top and bottom bolts that are actually pivots for the bushes that the gears revolve on. Good luck with it.

 

[mattonthesea]

Neeves, you beat me to it. I found the video at midnight but not going to watch it then

I took the drum and gypsy off - they were in good nick and still greased from factory. But the hex bolts were seized in. Only have a cheap set of hex spanners on board so left it at that. Plus it's blowing 20kts here so applying heat would be fruitless.

However, I tried the handle and it jammed. Then, with a little pressure the spindle moved a bit through the body and the ratchet now works better and easier than ever before!

As ever, thanks for the help

M

 

[Neeves]

Neeves, you beat me to it. I found the video at midnight but not going to watch it then

I took the drum and gypsy off - they were in good nick and still greased from factory. But the hex bolts were seized in. Only have a cheap set of hex spanners on board so left it at that. Plus it's blowing 20kts here so applying heat would be fruitless.

However, I tried the handle and it jammed. Then, with a little pressure the spindle moved a bit through the body and the ratchet now works better and easier than ever before!

As ever, thanks for the help

M

I have this sneaking suspicion that some windlass issues are simply as a result of lazy installation at commissioning. No-one seems to use Duralac and there are invariably mixed metals. Dismantleing then becomes a bit of a nightmare - when it should be simple.

Jonathan

 

[mattonthesea]

I have this sneaking suspicion that some windlass issues are simply as a result of lazy installation at commissioning. No-one seems to use Duralac and there are invariably mixed metals. Dismantleing then becomes a bit of a nightmare - when it should be simple.

Jonathan

So the advice to buyers would be to dismantle on delivery and grease internals before use! Wish I had.

 

[Poignard]

So the advice to buyers would be to dismantle on delivery and grease internals before use! Wish I had.

And apply Duralac to every screw.

 

[alahol2]

And loosen /retighten every screw in the faceplate at the end of the season.

 

[Neeves]

So the advice to buyers would be to dismantle on delivery and grease internals before use! Wish I had.

We replaced our windlass when we down sized from 8mm to 6mm chain. I took the new one home, took it out of the box and took it apart. I then re-assembled it. I did this a few times to define if there were any tricky ways of servicing. I then dismantled it and put Duralac on all the bolts and greased the moving parts (and checked the oil in the gearbox (easy on ours as it has a plastic plug that is also a window to see oil level). I used Duralac, as that is what I have, and I coated the bolts where-ever as I was not sure if any of the casting were aluminium. I took pictures of the windlass in various stages of dismantling.

Our new windlass is a Maxwell, part of Vetus, and as described has this see through nut on the oil reservoir/gearbox. It also has a neat bayonet fitting that allows you to remove the 'windlass' but minus the motor for servicing (so there is a housing secured to the structure of the yacht and a circlip type device and a bayonet securing design which allows the whole device to be removed - leaving the securement bolts untouched.. If it was a different arrangement you could remove the whole lot to service (our location is a bit confined - I have to take the motor off, not difficult).

If you buy a new yacht I'd suggest taking the windlass apart early on in your ownership to familiarise yourself with the servicing procedure and check that it has been installed using Duralac (which would be an unusual process by the commissioning organisation). Servicing is actually very easy. Its the sort of task to programme for a sunny afternoon on a mooring or in your marina. It takes a bit of time (so wear a hat ), and a cold drink will make it all a bit more palatable. Windlass are very robust - but are not cheap to replace - programme it for once a year.

Most faults are not cleaning and greasing the shaft and not checking the gear box oil.

Jonathan

 

[Poignard]

It's regrettable that when we buy a Lofrans windlass we should have to do something the manufacturer should have done, ie apply Duralac (or similar) to the screws so we can get the thing apart several years down the line.

Built in obsolescence!

 

[alahol2]

Just for the avoidance of doubt, the Lofrans Royal hasn't got an oil bath. It uses nylon bushes (which are very cheap to replace) and grease for lubrication.

 

[mattonthesea]

Update.
Possible answer to the issue. The windlass monkey had been locking the clutch off with such force that we think the lifting gear mechanism (the clever bits that only rotate one way despite the handle going both) had got confused and shifted everything around. When trying to release the clutch the whole mechanism had rotated such that the hole for the lifting handle was facing down.

Fortunately, with partial disassembly, it had released and now works as should.

Now for some duralac.

M

 

[alahol2]

I think you will find, now that it's 'unstuck', that the wheel with the handle hole is free to rotate through 360 deg. A couple of times I've managed to rotate it so that the hole is underneath and had to rotate by hand so that I can fit the handle.

 

[Shuggy]

When my Lofrans Tigres windlass broke I desperately needed a new one to keep the family holiday going. The motor had failed so I decided to buy a new one and fix the old one at my leisure and then flog it. Half way through the holiday I tried to remove the old one but as the family had departed to the pub in protest I was on my own. I couldn’t get it off the deck due to the power of Sikaflex so had a brainwave and attached the spinnaker halyard to it and cranked up the winch. When it finally burst free it shot about six feet up in the air before landing next to me at the base of the mast, missing my head by about six inches and smashing the deck. Do not - in any circumstances - take technical advice from me.

 

[geem]

It's regrettable that when we buy a Lofrans windlass we should have to do something the manufacturer should have done, ie apply Duralac (or similar) to the screws so we can get the thing apart several years down the line.

Built in obsolescence!

My 10 year old Lofrans Falkon has worked hard for a living. We have worn off the chrome on the rope drum. It gets very little attention. It seems to just run and run and gives no trouble. When I have stripped the gypsy off, it all come apart super easy.
A slightly different design from the Tigres but well engineered

 

[mattonthesea]

Thread revival

Having looked through all the servicing stuff I realise that I should not have stuck the windlass to the deck so well!

When I get back to the boat I will take it apart to service and duralac all the parts but I won't be able to reach the bottom gear removal as it is under the unit. Therefore, unless I can knock the spindle out I will not be able to access the rope-side bush (nylon?) The unit is only four years old so the bush should be ok. I'm just wondering if greasing it from its working position will be enough?

Should I try and slide some other compound around the bushes as well/instead?

Thanks
M

 

[alahol2]

The nylon bush itself is not usually the problem, it is corrosion on the surrounding alloy. This 'squeezes' the bush and causes it to bind on the rotating shaft. Ideally you need to get the bush out and put a coating on the surrounding alloy to try to prevent corrosion. It is probably worth spending the time to unstick the whole thing from the deck in order to prevent future problems.

 

[mattonthesea]

Update: back to the boat and investigated the windlass. It came off the deck remarkably easily. Apart from one corroded bolt (had to drill out) the end plate came off to reveal a horrible mixture of gunk and the beginning of corrosion - and a rusty spring. Everything came out except the rope-side wheel inner. The drum came off but not the wheel it goes on. In the video there is a circlip but not on my model. There is the end of a Woodruff? key showing and it looks like it should just slide out. Some attempted encouragement later it remained in situ. As it was still spinning easily I left it, cleaned everything else and reassembled, greasing and duralac on the way.

On testing I found that it is possible to put the spindle geary things on the wrong way; pulling and pushing the leaver would lower the anchor ever so slowly! Ten minutes later it was working fine.

Sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't be more efficient to use a block and tackle from, say, the mast with a chain shackle. We only use the windlass for freeing the anchor from the sea bed and pulling it over the bow roller! The rest we do by hand.