Anchor Winch Problem - Help!

[slimjim]

I use my Anchor a lot for shark fishing and on Saturday I had another Captain running my boat, he says the winch worked well on the first trip. On the 2nd trip the winch "stopped working" when they were trying to pull it up in 45ft or water.

The red nob by below my gear/throttle works okay and pushes in on and off okay as the red light comes on, and I can hear it click on a little grey relay below the helm.

I cannot find any fuse or reset trip button and I am not sure whats the problem. It just will not work anymore. Yesterday we had to pull the anchor my hand and it was no fun trying to get my anchor up.

Its a 2002 Albin 28TE white winch and it always worked fine. Any ideas on whats wrong or what to do would be welcome.

[special k]

my 2002 also has a white (forget the brand name) windlass. mine uses smaller (10ga) pair of wires from switch @ helm to motor with no switches @ the pulpit. mine had problems with corrosion at the motor wire connections and i had some success replacing section of wire in the rope locker, but not for long. mine is also pre wired with larger gauge wires from near batteries to locker. (not in use). i got tired of trying to keep my windlass working and have replacement on my "to do" list with a unit that i hope can endure more severe duty. while trouble shooting i first made sure my helm switch was not the problem.

agree that deploying and retrieval by hand is a pita.

[Pasteur]

I recently had a problem with my winch. Another member suggested that it could be bad contact on the spades in the anchor locker. They were removed, cleaned and a bit of dielectric grease was injected. Good to go.

It's worth a try before replacing the unit.

[RobS]

I recently had a problem with my winch. Another member suggested that it could be bad contact on the spades in the anchor locker. They were removed, cleaned and a bit of dielectric grease was injected. Good to go.

It's worth a try before replacing the unit.

Spades in the anchor locker? Spades on what? Is your contactor mounted in the anchor locker?

[Pitou]

Spades in the anchor locker? Spades on what? Is your contactor mounted in the anchor locker?

If you have deck foot switches, Control Box is mounted up high backside starboard side. During my ownership, I cleaned and put electrical grease on connections annually and replaced control box 2X. Maintenance is key in that location.

[RobS]

My boat came pre-wired from the under helm area to the anchor locker for the windlass and the foot switch wiring.

2012-06-11_08-25-24_174.jpg

I installed the contactor under the helm.

[Pitou]

A much better way to go Rob. If mine hadn't been built with windlass and switches I'd have done the same. Later models had the box still in the locker, but inside an acrylic box. This offers some protection.

[RobS]

Seems it would be easy enough to relocate the contactor and worth the hour or two of work and just the cost of some connectors to get it into a dry location.

[slimjim]

it was the motor. 12 year old lewmar pro 600 under powered for what i do. So I replaced it with a Pro 1000 and bigger chain and rope. So far it works great. $2k after all was said and done. The winch was $939

[mike66]

I replaced my Lewmar Pro 1000 motor last year when it gave out. While disassembling, I also found the gear bearings and seals were shot. I bought a kit and had a machine shop press them in. Moral: service geartrain yearly w/new grease. Easy but messy job. The boat was new to me so who knows the history. Good luck with the new one and with your fishing!