Lofrens winch relay repair

[Jacana]

The external switch contacts on my winch relay corroded off whilst on holiday on the W coast of Scotland recently (i.e at anchor and no immediate repair available) Whilst removing the unit one of the copper connections for the winch motor sheared off (whilst attempting to loosen it).

I dis-assembled the unit and replaced the broken contact with a stainless bolt, filed down to the same thickness. This worked for a fortnight but has a tendency to stick onto the copper connector on the solenoid.

I am reluctant to pay £100 for effectively a new copper bolt and have not been able to locate Lofrens website to see if spares are available. Any help most welcome along with any theory as to why the SS bolt should stick to the connecter when the copper does not. I imagine the arc is the same in each case.

 

[savageseadog]

Like most bits of engineering there's always much more to things than people realise. Can you replace the relay with a car type unit? Silver contacts are what you want even then it's probably an alloy. Other option would be to fit suppression on the contacts or the motor, suppression would consist of some capacitance and resistance or a diode, without knowing the circuitry I couldn't advise exactly what you need to do.

 

[Jacana]

Good idea - I think a pair of car units would handle the fwd and rev modes quite nicely. The contacts in the Lofrens appear to be pure copper with a simple flat plate on the end of each solenoid core shorting across a pair of copper bolts. They might even have a manual "over-ride" if I can find a suitable model, which would offer another degree of fail-safeness.

 

[Tranona]

have not been able to locate Lofrens website.

They have an excellent website - perhaps if you spelt it correctly LOFRANS and Googled you would find it. www.lofrans.it They are imported into UK by EC Smith who hold spares stocks.

Hope you get it fixed properly soon.

 

[Jacana]

Thanks for that - I was assuming they were scandinavian!

Choice now is be £100 lighter or file down a copper bolt and try again.

I think I'll try that first

 

[Billjratt]

I burned out a coil on my relay and rewound it. During the process I was disappointed to see the copper points instead of the hardened contacts we used to see on (for instance ) post office relays.
I would strongly recommend the car solenoid solution, as the next Lofrans relay won't last much longer than the last - will it? (then there's the reduced cost - especially from a scrappy)

 

[Jacana]

Interesting point about the contacts. Surprisingly they did not seem pitted although it doesn't get a lot of use. I do favour the car solenoids route so will source some suitable spares.