Windless problem

[g0tagrip]

Yesterday when bringing up my anchor on my Marlin 300 the windless sort of ran out of umph. I checked the batteries and the terminals and the batteries all show charged. And the connections looked good. I am at a loss, I can hear the clicking of the solenoid when I hit the switches. Any ideas where to go from here?
Thanks.

 

[seabob4]

Put a meter on your solenoid at rest, check the voltage. Now, with the meter still on the solenoid, have the wife or a buddy hit the up switch, see what your meter reads...

 

[g0tagrip]

Is the solenoid the black box next to the windless? If so I get no voltage indication.

 

[seabob4]

Is the solenoid the black box next to the windless? If so I get no voltage indication.

Does your solenoid look something like this?

The center spade connector should be a ground. Put a meter on that connector and either of the top posts, and have your buddy operate the windlass, you should see voltage. If you don't your solenoid might be toast...

 

[g0tagrip]

solenoid

Yes that is what it looks like.

 

[g0tagrip]

Thanks I will give that a try.

 

[g0tagrip]

Well after a lot of trouble shooting you will not believe what the problem was. The circuit breaker had tripped. Nothing like making a 30 second fix turn into a 4 day job! Damn you would have thought I was smart enough to check that first! It is embarrassing!

 

[gulfcart]

Don't feel bad, I did the same thing, only worse.. I had a spare in the garage so I changed it out to find no success. Then I realized the solenoid was clicking so it had to be the main line..Only then did I remember that it had it's own breaker.. Sometimes ya just don't think straight!

 

[seabob4]

Well after a lot of trouble shooting you will not believe what the problem was. The circuit breaker had tripped. Nothing like making a 30 second fix turn into a 4 day job! Damn you would have thought I was smart enough to check that first! It is embarrassing!

 

[g0tagrip]

Update on Windless problem

Well guys, after several trips having to manually pull up my anchor, further trouble shooting, finally found out the real problem. It was not batteries, it was not the electrical, not the solenoid, and it was not the windless motor. It was the gearing in the Lewmar V700. It would drop down fine, but was happening the gearing going up would bind up and the motor would eventually seize up and throw the circuit breaker. It cost me several knuckles and so far a bunch in labor to get this far and to get it out of the boat. Interestingly enough the Lewmar warranty is for 5 years yet when I called them on it they said it was only warrantied for 1 year. I disagreed and called my dealer and he said Grady White thinks it is 5 years also and would make good on it. I am Fedex-ing it to my dealer today, he is an authorized repair facility for Lewmar and will handle them. What a goat rope, but another reason to go Grady.

 

[ahill]

gOtagrip
Could be your main gear is bound up. Works one direction but not the other. A result of having the winch keep the anchor tensioned in pulpit or using winch direct to anchor not cleated off.
Its a PITA but fairly simple fix. You have to disassemble the winch to get to the two way (main) gear and put it in a vise protecting the shaft. Use vise grips to grab the big gear plate and rock back and forth until it frees up. Lubricate, reassemble. I posted on this under Horizon 500 Windlass last year while the repair was still fresh in my mind. Search it out as its probably more complete than this.
Good Luck