steelydon
Senior Member
I came to this forum 3 years ago to ask advice about buying a trawler and received some very thoughtful responses which ultimately led me to buy an Eagle 40. It was semi-ready to go but it spent two months in the yard while I did an extensive refit which included adding a stern thruster. Even though I placed it as low on the transom as possible once launched the thruster cavitated and provided poor thrust resulting in little use for the next 12 months since a haul out would be necessary to remedy the problem. So I headed down to Stuart knowing I had a dysfunctional thruster. While several companies offer hoods for their thrusters Lewmar does not so a friend of mine fabricated a pair while the boat was hauled out for its annual service.
While not elegant in appearance they were sturdy and functional and fixed the cavitation problem. I set out from NC to FL only to have the thruster begin to act up early in the cruise but only. Thrusting to starboard was sketchy at best and I found this to be a problem coming into Charleston City Marina, my apologies to the power cat and to the sailboat in Halifax Harbor. No damage in either event making the case for oversized fenders and a crewman that knows where to put them.
Back in NC I decided to tackle the issue. Lewmar provides an excellent troubleshooting guide for this thruster (I wonder why). I started with the inexpensive ($13 each) momentary joystick style switches that I had used at installation which checked out fine. It appeared to be a problem with the mysterious black box. I called Lewmar tech support to find out what purpose the black box served and was informed that it was limiter that provided a delay when shifting from port to starboard thrust to avoid damaging the motor and that they would be happy to send me one for $158.
It appeared to me that the box was more protection for Lewmar than the operator and that it added another level of complexity to the mix so I opted to wire direct to the solenoid, eliminate the box and the thruster worked fine, for a day. Next trip back same problem. I knew the motor worked properly so I removed the solenoid this time and scraped/sanded the contacts although there did not appear to be any arcing that I noticed.
Once again the thruster appeared to be working but then, like my friend in rehab it began its old ways shortly thereafter. So, I went online to buy the solenoid. *@^&%$!, these things ranged from $425-$550 for a Lewmar/Albright solenoid. Found an Albright DC88-3 NOS that looked the same on Ebay for $115 so I emailed Albright in England to ask if this was a suitable replacement and was advised that it would work but could not comment on extended use. Short answer, the thruster is working fine now but for how long? I figure the new solenoid will last a least as long as the OEM, 12mos +/- and that was with very little use.
Have I fixed the problem? At least for now while saving $500 on OEM parts. Should I have eliminated the black box. My Wesmar bow thruster is no so equipped and is working fine after 17 years. Will the solenoid last? They are both rated @100 amps so I guess I’ll see. One thing I’ve learned from reading TF is that OEM is not always the only answer
While not elegant in appearance they were sturdy and functional and fixed the cavitation problem. I set out from NC to FL only to have the thruster begin to act up early in the cruise but only. Thrusting to starboard was sketchy at best and I found this to be a problem coming into Charleston City Marina, my apologies to the power cat and to the sailboat in Halifax Harbor. No damage in either event making the case for oversized fenders and a crewman that knows where to put them.
Back in NC I decided to tackle the issue. Lewmar provides an excellent troubleshooting guide for this thruster (I wonder why). I started with the inexpensive ($13 each) momentary joystick style switches that I had used at installation which checked out fine. It appeared to be a problem with the mysterious black box. I called Lewmar tech support to find out what purpose the black box served and was informed that it was limiter that provided a delay when shifting from port to starboard thrust to avoid damaging the motor and that they would be happy to send me one for $158.
It appeared to me that the box was more protection for Lewmar than the operator and that it added another level of complexity to the mix so I opted to wire direct to the solenoid, eliminate the box and the thruster worked fine, for a day. Next trip back same problem. I knew the motor worked properly so I removed the solenoid this time and scraped/sanded the contacts although there did not appear to be any arcing that I noticed.
Once again the thruster appeared to be working but then, like my friend in rehab it began its old ways shortly thereafter. So, I went online to buy the solenoid. *@^&%$!, these things ranged from $425-$550 for a Lewmar/Albright solenoid. Found an Albright DC88-3 NOS that looked the same on Ebay for $115 so I emailed Albright in England to ask if this was a suitable replacement and was advised that it would work but could not comment on extended use. Short answer, the thruster is working fine now but for how long? I figure the new solenoid will last a least as long as the OEM, 12mos +/- and that was with very little use.
Have I fixed the problem? At least for now while saving $500 on OEM parts. Should I have eliminated the black box. My Wesmar bow thruster is no so equipped and is working fine after 17 years. Will the solenoid last? They are both rated @100 amps so I guess I’ll see. One thing I’ve learned from reading TF is that OEM is not always the only answer