Windlass Wiring Help!

[marina95]

So,

A few years back I installed a brand new lofrans windlass which came as a kit with the control box and circuit breaker.

Only thing was, there was not a wiring diagram available for it. Eventually, after some head scratching I had it wired up and it worked perfectly for a year. Second year it became a little unreliable on start up (needing a little light tap on the gypsy to make it start), third year even more so. I've had the motor and gearbox off several times, it's been to a Lofrans agent here in the UK and an agent out in Greece (where the boat is located) and our several times on the bench in the yard. I simply cannot reproduce the problem.

So, this trip I'm going armed with new cables and crimp terminals determined to fix the thing.

...Oh, and of course a wiring diagram (cannot find one for the Marlin, but they look generic). Having now studied the wiring diagram I can see that there is a difference in the way that I've wired mine up.



As you can see from the diagram, instead of taking a seperate pos and neg feed from the battery to control the solenoid from the foot switches I thought it would be ok to simply take a feed from the main (16mm2) pos and neg feed to the control box.

Does the panel think that this might be the root cause of my issues? (perhaps after the 1st year the control box wasn't "new" and needed a little more amperage to operate? Mystified as to why the tap on the top of the windlass would make it go. but...

Thanks!

 

[pvb]

If you've wired it as your diagram shows, it won't work. Your bypass of the negative is OK. Your bypass of the positive goes to the wrong wire, and should result in the windlass running constantly.

 

[nigelmercier]

Did you mean to show the blue wire connected to positive? In any case you have bypassed a fuse.

Yes, you should take the control wires back to the source, as in the diagram.

 

[VicS]

If you have wired it how I am sure you intended to show it on the diagram ie with the red wire from the foot switches connected to the positive terminal of the control box it should work OK.

I would have kept a fuse in that connection though as the rating of the circuit breaker won't protect the footswitch wiring.

I dont understand why they suggest that the pos and neg connections for the control circuit should be taken directly from the battery. Maybe to avoid the effects of voltage drop on the main wiring

 

[West Coast]

If you have wired it how I am sure you intended to show it on the diagram ie with the red wire from the foot switches connected to the positive terminal of the control box it should work OK.

I would have kept a fuse in that connection though as the rating of the circuit breaker won't protect the footswitch wiring.

I dont understand why they suggest that the pos and neg connections for the control circuit should be taken directly from the battery. Maybe to avoid the effects of voltage drop on the main wiring

Agreed - i have wired my Lewmar the same way you have done, with a fuse to protect the foot switch circuit, works just fine. I dont think this is your problem. Have you tried measuring voltages in the circuit when you activate the footswitch?

 

[nigelmercier]

Maybe to avoid the effects of voltage drop on the main wiring

Yes, when the motor starts up, the surge can cause the solenoid to drop out.

 

[john_morris_uk]

Agreed - i have wired my Lewmar the same way you have done, with a fuse to protect the foot switch circuit, works just fine. I dont think this is your problem. Have you tried measuring voltages in the circuit when you activate the footswitch?

I agree.

You also might like to learn that whenever we have had problems with out Lofrans windlass its been the contractors in the 'relay box' and not the windlass itself that has been faulty.

 

[marina95]

Thanks all. Yes I made a mistake in the drawing - the pos feed from the control box should have been one over onto the foot switch feed.

I think the voltage drop / solenoid drop out theory might work here, although not sure why tapping the windlass makes it work!

I'm going to run an independent pos/neg feed as per the diagram to see if that helps. Failing that, I'll disassemble the control box and clean up the contactiors...

 

[nigelmercier]

I'm going to run an independent pos/neg feed as per the diagram to see if that helps. Failing that, I'll disassemble the control box and clean up the contactiors...

While you are at it, remake all the bolted connections, and give them a clean as you do so. Some Contralube 770 is a good idea on all joints: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B007OUW4O4/dolcetto-21