T&T: ANchor windlass quesstion

[Peter Bennett]

Thursday, August 21, 2008, 3:25:11 AM, FloridaKeyz wrote:

Fac> I have an Easy Anchor Puller windlass, which up till today worked  flawless.
Fac>  
Fac> I have 13 volts to the switch , thru the switch, and at the windlass.
Fac>  
Fac> When I hit up or down, the celinoids make a "krinling" (sorta like bacon
Fac> frying) noise but won't activate the windlass. Nothing seems to be burnt or
Fac> burning. I would guess the sound is they are not activating.
Fac>  
Fac> Any sugestions on what to check.? I can't imagine both celinoids going out
Fac> at once. Any idears will be greatly appriciate, pulling the anchor by hand
Fac> sucks.!  

Fac> Happy  Cruising!
Fac> Sterling 

I'd suspect a poor connection somewhere.  With no load other than your
meter, you could read normal voltage at the windlass solenoids, but
when you try to run the winch, you will get a large voltage drop at
the poor connection.  There may be enough current available to pull in
the solenoid, but once it makes contact, and the windlass tries to
draw current, the voltage drops to a point where the solenoid
releases, disconnecting the windlass, allowing the voltage to rise so
the solenoid can pull in again...  and the solenoid just buzzes.


-- 
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI    Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Ennos 31 "Honeycomb"
GPS and NMEA info: http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter 
Vancouver Power Squadron: http://vancouver.powersquadron.ca