windlass wiring diagram

[kevinnice]

hi all.
my windlass will go down but not up.
i have done the basic wiring checks but now i need a wiring diagram. most particularly for the cockpit rocker switch which activates the windlass - it has 8 connections and i need to understand each of them.

any ideas where i can get a windlass wiring diagram for my sundancer 290 1996?

 

[Lazy Daze]

Possibly on the windlass manufacturer's website? Or, maybe try contacting them directly. I don't have a windlass, so I can't check to see if it would be in the owner's manual for the windlass.

 

[Henry Boyd]

Kevin,

I don't know the brand / model of the windlass you have. But I can give you the benefit of some of the things I learned last year when my LoFrans windlass began to behave the same way.

One possibility is that the motor has gone bad in that one of the motor terminal posts has become disconnected internally. If this is the case, the motor is toast. Some folks here have resoldered the wires to the terminal, but the windlass suppliers say this is not an effective repair.

Another possibility is that the control box has failed. SO before ripping the motor out you might want to do a couple tests. First some background on the control box.

The control box makes the motor go up or down depending on how which helm or foot switches are pressed. The switches are are low current 12vdc 5~10 amps. The control box is a solenoid driven relay. You press the up switch and the low current circuit engages the up side of the control box and closes the high current 50-60 amps circuit for the motor. Since this is a high current mechanical switch, when the switch circuit is broken and the solenoid retracts, an arc is created at the contact points. If you are old enough to have ever had a car with a contact point ignition, its the same thing.

To test the control box, swap the 'up' and 'down' wires from the motor on the control box (up wire from motor to down terminal on control box and vice versa). Now try the windlass switches, don't forget they are labeled backwards now. If the control box is bad, the windlass will go up but not down. If the motor is bad nothing will change other than it will go down when you are pressing the up button.

Henry

 

[douglee25]

Here's a general one for you. The dash switches are usually just wiring in parallel with the foot switches.

Doug


http://www.seatechmarineproducts.com/download/2_and_4_wire_diagram.jpg

 

[kevinnice]

henry boyd and douglee25 you are both wonderful!
its 8 pm here and i have to go out to karaoke - but i cant wait to get back down to the boat tomorrow morning to test this out.

both are brilliant inputs - the colour codes on the wiring diagram even match mine.

i currently have the control box lid off and because of the difficulty of access i will have to remove the control box from the panel. the wires are so short - it would make more sense to put 12 inches on every wire and bundle them for maintenance?

i already tested all switches and im planning on lengthening the cables to the foot switches to allow future maintenance. the one thing i couldnt test was the rocker switch because i didnt have the wiring diagram - now i do.

isnt it great to work on problems yourself? : get to learn about the boat and feel whats happening.

thanks again u 2 heroes!

(what song shall i sing at karaoke?)

 

[RonF]

At one point, I actually ordered and replaced the control box, and that did not fix the problem. As a last resort I started removing the cables from the motor, and found so much corrosion that one was not passing current to the contact. After a thorough cleanup. the motor worked fine in both directions. So, please don't overlook the obvious like I did. Fortunately the good people at Lofrans let me return the new control box for full credit minus shipping.

 

[kevinnice]

thanks ronf. i just got back from karaoke and am full of beer. tomorrow i will read this again!

 

[kevinnice]

good news gentlemen. with the aid of the wiring diagram i finally got to the boat today and traced everything back, testing cables as i went. here's what i found:
the cable from the "down" footswitch was badly oxidised and had 2 breaks in it.
one of the wires from the coil had seperated from its connector
the "down" footswitch only worked very intermittently.

anyway, i bypassed the bad stuff with temporary cables on crocodile clips and got it up and going. to maintain the integrity of the wiring i want to replace cables with similar colours. unfortunately here in spain i cant buy multi-strand copper cables in blue, brown, red etc. but i can get solid core 5 amp cables in all the colours i need.

question: any reason you know of that i cant use solid core cables?

seems to me they'd be less susceptible to oxidation?

this is a great example of how the club sea ray site can help the "willing but ignorant" - so thank you again to douglee25 and henryboyd... and of course ronf... you all saved me a bunch of cash and i got to understand another little bit of tis boat

don't you just love happy endings?

 

[Lazy Daze]

Glad to hear you figured it out!:smt001

By the way, we use "alligator" clips over here in the US :grin:

Never use solid wire on a boat. Too much flexing and vibration going on - the wire will fail.

If you can't get the exact color (maybe ordering it online?), use the appropriate sized wire of any color. Then just wrap the wire with the correct color electrical tape at appropriate places - such as junction spots and/or termination points. The most important thing is to use the correct gauge - and remove those croc clips as soon as possible.

 

[douglee25]

Good to hear!

Doug