Anchor windlass issue - sparks from chain

[BruceK]

Pulled the trigger on a new motor, "should" be here in a couple of days.
Old one which still works as a spare.

Put it down as a consumable
We've anchored with it for about 2500 days so about $0.50c/ day
I'm good with that considering the alternative.

Glad you found one! About what I paid Muir years ago to replace the motor in an old Cheetah(or was it a Cougar), amps draw increase promptly fried the ammeter.
Btw, a friend once bought Aussie made Ronstan parts from Defender, freight incl, for less than he could buy them here.

 

[Shrew]

Slightly different noise - or is it?
Seemed to lack power - at times
Seemed to change speed - at times
And sometimes I could swear I could hear a crackle with a whiff of ozone

Brushes, brushes, brushes. As the brush wears, it shortens, and the spring continue pushing it. When the brush is too short, the spring reaches the end of its travel and can't push as hard. If a gap forms between the brush and the armature, it will arc.

Arcing is more than likely the crackle and electrical smoke you smell.

Symptoms are:

• Slow windlass/thruster
• windlass/thruster cutting out
• windlass/thruster taking more than one actuation of the controller to make the device spin.
• Works fine once, then not the second time (similar to cutting out)

 

[Simi 60]

Brushes, brushes, brushes. As the brush wears, it shortens, and the spring continue pushing it.

Nope, brushes are still every bit of 1 inch long.

As stated above it was broken armature wire whizzing around inside and shorting.

 

[Simi 60]

And the new motor has arrived where the trawlers offload in Bundy.
Collected along with a feed of prawns for lunch

Will install tonight - suns a bit bitey now.

 

[Simi 60]

An incredible difference in performance and no more strange noises.

I honestly can't remember this windlass being so fast in the seven years of ownership.
Obviously a very slow deterioration over time, gone unnoticed until it was.

 

[Don L]

Sparks fly from my windlass tips

ouuuuu witchy windlass

 

[BeeJay]

An incredible difference in performance and no more strange noises.

I honestly can't remember this windlass being so fast in the seven years of ownership.
Obviously a very slow deterioration over time, gone unnoticed until it was.

I have had a similar issue in the past where collapsed bearing allowed contact between the armature and stator with similar results. As you discovered it must have been operating that way for years because after repair it now runs way smoother with less mechanical noise but before the fix I didn’t know any different.