windlass failure

[dale1]

Greetings, haven't been here in a while

the original windlass, a 2002 lewmar finally failed this weekend.

any ideas on replacement or upgrades? what about the free fall models? the lewmar 700 sport fish? the reviews are not that good. i know you cant always go by those.

thanks, dale
2002, 265 express.

 

[Halfhitch]

I fish occasionally on a friends 31' Luhrs. It has a Good windlass with freefall and it works very good.
https://www.goodwindlass.com/Products/r ... 50windlass

 

[dale1]

Halfhitch. thanks. I called grady. they stated they are staying with lewmar. I ordered the 700 profish kit and 8 plate rope. it was just short of 1000 bucks. It should be a fairly easy change out. It gets horrible reviews, but you cant always believe what you read I'll do a post after the next trip. I'm kinda excited about the free fall, but i can see a tangle scenario coming. dale

 

[Halfhitch]

Thats' going to be exciting rigging up that new back-saver. I do think the Profish is a very nice looking unit and is probably more compact and less expensive than the Good windlass. All very important considerations for Grady. If your windlass is designed for it, that 8 plait line is very nice stuff to handle and is much more flexible than 3 strand. It falls into place much better in the locker. It is a little trickier to splice, so if you ever want to lengthen the rode or have to cut off a hung-up anchor there are "how-to" instructions online.

 

[drbatts]

Dale,
First hand experience here. My old 265 had your same original windlass, My new boat has the lewmar 700 with 8 plait rode. I love the free fall feature, it is much nicer not having to pay out rode. Only issue is that I had to tighten the clutch initially when I got the boat, but it has been fine since. I cannot say I have had more or less tangle issues, anything I have had has been minor. I also have controls at the bow now too, which is another nice new feature. You will find it a nice upgrade.

 

[Fishtales]

Take your old one apart and see if you can fix it. I did this on my old boat a couple of times and extended the life. Sometimes the motor is fine, just the gearbox. After a good cleaning and greasing it may just work.

 

[ROBERTH]

I just had to replace my Lewmar 700FF after 5 years and found the issue was internal corrosion and electrolysis had totally eaten up the mounts for the motor inside as well as eat at all the gears/metal parts.
Culprit was apparently saltwater had gotten inside and was not escaping. Not sure how it got in there, but it did.
So this time, got same unit as it does work very well and is easy to use. Like others, 8plait rode, etc.

Lesson learned, break the side plate off each season, and inspect, rinse out and re-grease all the gears, ensure the seal is still sealing. Ensure all power is turned off to the unit when not in use to help reduce any current flow, etc.

Fingers crossed it will be good with this approach.

 

[ralph85]

I hope you have better luck than I did with the Lewmar on my Voyager. Brand new last year. I mounted it on the back of the bow pulpit which is not optimal and the line wouldn't drop properly. I installed a plastic sheet to give it a nice smooth surface to slide on which helped, but it still gets jammed up from time to time (usually the worst times). The pin that prevents freefall from engaging broke off after a month. Learned you need to grease the bigger spring loaded finger that engages the free fall or it will sound like someone is banging on the front of your boat with a hammer. Brand new Anchor rode already moderately frayed, and toward the end of the season, the splice wouldn't make it through the gypsy. I also had some issues with the existing bow roller and really should replace it with something specifically suited to a windlass operation. Good luck.

 

[ROBERTH]

Hi folks, update on new windlass now after a good season. Mid summer, removed the side cover and all was in good shape, no water.
I finally found and purchased a cover made specifically for the 700 Profish and have maintained the cover all season.
Now, with new project removing the pulpit to install new wider anchor roller to support the Delta Plow type anchor. While the windlass is dismounted, pulled the side cover off and what did I find?
Water!!!!!!

WTF is going on? How is water getting inside this unit that is supposedly sealed? The original seal looked to be well sealed. Water did not drip out when carrying the windlass off the boat and into the garage, so there is no obvious leak.

The water fortunately was not salty....ask me how I know!

Now, I have pulled all apart and cleaned all grease off and washed parts in Mineral Spirits. Now re-assembled, but what to use for the side plate gasket material? I have heard some using caulk, but what is best type to allow later easy removal. No, no 5200!

Thinking that the neoprene gasket just does not seal good. No idea how water can get into the windlass. Where the wires go through is fully sealed as well.

What about the RTV type sealants used for car gaskets? Seems it is somewhat easy to remove over some of the marine caulks out there like 4200, etc. Anyone have some previous experience...good/bad?

 

[DennisG01]

Yeah, definitely don't use 5200! It's amazing how often this gets recommended on forums for simple "sealing" jobs... but I attribute that to lack of knowledge and then people keep on recommending it because they saw someone else recommended it. I also wouldn't use 4200 - still too strong - but also isn't UV stable so if there's any part that is open to sunlight, it will deteriorate.

I'm not familiar with what your cover looks like, but from what it sounds like... I'd be inclined to use butyl rubber tape (google it - amazon). For straight up sealing purposes, you really can't beat this stuff. Otherwise, something like LifeSeal or 3M 4000. If the RTV is UV stable, then sure, that could work, too. I'd probably still err on the side of marine products, just to be sure (salt water, moisture, etc, etc).

 

[Fishtales]

water gets into everything unfortunately. i'd seal it up and go.

 

[ROBERTH]

Thanks for the feedback. I had some Grey RTV sealant left over in the refrigerator that still is good, so I went ahead and gave it a try. Reason is I researched it and all RTV is UV resistant so that might help and the gray goes well with the SS by coincidence

Will see how it goes. I do like the thought of trying the butyl tape, which I have read about but never put to use before. In the case of the Lewmar Windlass, the mating surface is not a simple flat surface, it has a couple of transitions/levels that only a caulk or soft type pre-formed neoprene gasket could fill in and seal off. I think the butyl will stay too soft and get pushed out easily. It is a very strange mating surface, unlike a normal mating like a head gasket or something of the sort.

Will see how it goes. Need to keep a sharp eye out for it. I can't imagine how many folks out there have water inside and don't even know it. Trust me, second Lewmar and water in both. Fortuantely I am diligent to check and catch it before it did any damage, even though I don't like the rusting of the gears.

 

[DennisG01]

Actually, the butyl stuff would work REALLY well in that situation. It's not as soft as you are thinking. But if you haven't used it before, I can understand the apprehension. I'm sure your RTV will work really well, too. Sometimes, when I'm using caulk in a situation like yours, I'll let the caulk setup a bit first - then mate the surfaces gently, but not fully. Then, the next day you can tighten it down further. Doing it that way, you basically make your own soft, rubber gasket. Just a tip for the future - you're probably good to go with what you did.

 

[wspitler]

Same problem here with Profish 1000. I bought a new OEM gasket and added some silicon to it. I remove the cover and clean/lube the gearcase annually. I haven't seen any water in the case since I started that. Too bad they don't make a custom gasket that seals well.

 

[ROBERTH]

Hey Dennis, someone on another site mentioned something called Denso tape? Thinking maybe it is the same thing as the Buytl you mention.....