Time to service the anchor winch...

[SanFran 11]

It's got to have been many moons over the yard arm since the anchor winch was last given a birthday.   Before my time anyway.   I'm not sure what brand it is, possibly Maxwell, but the only thing I can see to dismantling it is a straight head screw centre top of the bronze turny thing.   I've tried, but it won't budge.  Impact screw driver?   

Or do I just leave It?   Dont futz  around with what ain't broke.  It's just that it's pretty slow now, but still pulls the anchor up.    Thoughts anyone?

[Clipper 322]

Slow may be a wiring issue. No need to ask how i just learnt that.

[aardvarkash10 866]

Has it got a model # on it?  If so, track down the manual for it.  Maxwell is here

I had ours apart recently.  It had broken the plastic stripper arm and also flicked the circlip of the bottom of the capstan shaft (I suspect it picked up on the warp).

The manual recommends 6-monthly services and its not onerous - takes about 1 beercan to complete from start to finish.  Basically a clean of everything on the capstan, regrease the clutch and shaft.

The motor drops off it separately and is probably best serviced onshore where the stuff you drop ends up on hte floor not the in the ocean. 

 

[marinheiro 347]

1 hour ago, SanFran said:

It's got to have been many moons over the yard arm since the anchor winch was last given a birthday.   Before my time anyway.   I'm not sure what brand it is, possibly Maxwell, but the only thing I can see to dismantling it is a straight head screw centre top of the bronze turny thing.   I've tried, but it won't budge.  Impact screw driver?   

Or do I just leave It?   Dont futz  around with what ain't broke.  It's just that it's pretty slow now, but still pulls the anchor up.    Thoughts anyone?

one of these?

 

you need to take them apart from time to time (like annually)to grease the cone clutches, this could be why it is running slowly. Before resorting to an impact driver if you can get your hands on a really big soldering iron try heating the screw head to loosen it up. Once you unscrew the top clamp and carefully slide the drum and gypsy off you will find a spring and 2 keys. Take a photo of how they are located, they are different lengths. Nilssons still have manuals for downloading on their site  

[Bradz 18]

2 hours ago, SanFran said:

It's got to have been many moons over the yard arm since the anchor winch was last given a birthday.   Before my time anyway.   I'm not sure what brand it is, possibly Maxwell, but the only thing I can see to dismantling it is a straight head screw centre top of the bronze turny thing.   I've tried, but it won't budge.  Impact screw driver?   

Or do I just leave It?   Dont futz  around with what ain't broke.  It's just that it's pretty slow now, but still pulls the anchor up.    Thoughts anyone?

We have just been through this over Easter weekend. Winch has been slowing down over the past year. Solution was to remove the motor, leaving winch drum in place. Dismantled the drive motor, cleaned with brakleen. Removed a lot of old grease, the brushes where gunked up, my guess is this may be your issue. Get the bushes moving freely and in good contact. they don't like a build up of grease where conductivity need to occur.  Spray the stator and brushes with CorrossionX. Grease where required. Reassemble and we are away. In fact, i would say she spools faster than ever since we have owned the boat.

[SanFran 11]

4 hours ago, marinheiro said:

one of these?

 

you need to take them apart from time to time (like annually)to grease the cone clutches, this could be why it is running slowly. Before resorting to an impact driver if you can get your hands on a really big soldering iron try heating the screw head to loosen it up. Once you unscrew the top clamp and carefully slide the drum and gypsy off you will find a spring and 2 keys. Take a photo of how they are located, they are different lengths. Nilssons still have manuals for downloading on their site  

No, it's a flat top, and for rope only, no chain gypsy.    I'm guessing Noah traded it in.

[SanFran 11]

All great responces, thanks,   i'm wondering if the motor can be withdrawn underneath without the top drum being loosened?

[wheels 543]

Yes the screw needs to be removed. A BIG screw driver is required and give the screw driver a good hard crack with the other "persussion screw dirver" (Hammer). Normally it should not be hard to remove because maintenance should be every 6 months to 12months at the most. 
Once the screw is out, the drum should slip off. But the same applies. It "should" slip off because it "should" be done once a yr at most.
The clutch surface should always be kept clean and have a very slight smeer of grease on it. The shaft should also be greased ever so slightly to ensure easy removal of Drum/Gypsy. It also means visual inspection can help keep on top of leaky seals and possible corrosion of the winch body and motor.
A slow motor can be caused by several reasons.
Badly worn or dry bearings.
Oil in the wat...I mean water in the Oil of the gearbox.
The seal between box and motor being badly worn and oil having leaked down into the motor. The Oil mixes with the carbon dust and semi shorts the brushes and a large amount of current is sunk to Earth of the winch body. A real good clean, new seal and bearing and new brushes will usually solve the problem.
Badly worn brushes.
Severe wear on the armature.
Short in a winding.
Severly worn worm gear.
 

[Rats 28]

Just been through this,  the slow up was due to a heavily worn bronze gear teeth on the primary shaft of the Windlass

The Windlass was a Maxwell Nilsson originally installed in the late 1980's. The boat a Farr 1220.

I approached Maxwell they wanted nothing to do with it, much better luck with James Nilsson located on Hillside Rd, Glenfield. 

Bought the whole unit to them and they essentially serviced it and rebuilt it, they noted a couple of keyway keys that were stainless steel, they suggested replacing them with bronze which would fail before transferring load damage further down the chain, I then reinstalled it.

Pretty happy with how it turned out, not cheap-about $1300 if I recall, that's still cheaper than a new windlass.

[marinheiro 347]

1 hour ago, Rats said:

 

Pretty happy with how it turned out, not cheap-about $1300 if I recall, that's still cheaper AND BETTER than a new windlass.

have a look at the shaft diameter on your Maxwell Nilsson and compare it with the skinny shafts on the lightweight stuff the likes of Lewmar supply

[SanFran 11]

14 hours ago, wheels said:

Yes the screw needs to be removed. A BIG screw driver is required and give the screw driver a good hard crack with the other "persussion screw dirver" (Hammer). Normally it should not be hard to remove because maintenance should be every 6 months to 12months at the most. 
Once the screw is out, the drum should slip off. But the same applies. It "should" slip off because it "should" be done once a yr at most.
The clutch surface should always be kept clean and have a very slight smeer of grease on it. The shaft should also be greased ever so slightly to ensure easy removal of Drum/Gypsy. It also means visual inspection can help keep on top of leaky seals and possible corrosion of the winch body and motor.
A slow motor can be caused by several reasons.
Badly worn or dry bearings.
Oil in the wat...I mean water in the Oil of the gearbox.
The seal between box and motor being badly worn and oil having leaked down into the motor. The Oil mixes with the carbon dust and semi shorts the brushes and a large amount of current is sunk to Earth of the winch body. A real good clean, new seal and bearing and new brushes will usually solve the problem.
Badly worn brushes.
Severe wear on the armature.
Short in a winding.
Severly worn worm gear.
 

Yikes... the list goes on

[aardvarkash10 866]

where is the offending article located?

[Rats 28]

6 hours ago, marinheiro said:

have a look at the shaft diameter on your Maxwell Nilsson and compare it with the skinny shafts on the lightweight stuff the likes of Lewmar supply

Yeah the shaft and the old worn gear I have,  the shaft micces out at 23mm diameter so definitely old school built to last not like the shite that has obsolescence designed into the lifecycle. Don't know what the new stuff has size wise but I'm sure I would be disappointed. 

[Rats 28]

On 21/04/2021 at 4:03 PM, Clipper said:

Slow may be a wiring issue. No need to ask how i just learnt that.

Hopefully you remembered to throw the breaker before tightening things up, that can be a learning experience as well.

[marinheiro 347]

gave my Nilsson V3000 its annual clean and grease on the weekend. It is around 35 years old and still going strong! Had a reversing motor fitted by Grant N a few years ago. All bronze castings and a 38mm (1 1/2") shaft. Not like the toys fitted on the modern boats

 

 

[strath 4]

I want to replace my existing winch with a two way rope to chain gypsy, 8mm Din 776 chain

I have a Maxwell Nilsson wench, one direction, rope drum and chain gypsy, which is probably as old as the boat 1987 a Farr 1020. The winch stopped working a couple of years back and I rang Nilsson's who sugested taking the winch off to them for repair. The problem was I could get the rope drum off, but not the gypsy. The gypsy does not appear have a key and has two grub screws which screw onto the shaft which I could not get out. I finish up just taking the outer case off the motor and taking it to them and they put in new brushes which fixed the problem.

Now that I want to replace the winch, I am faced again with getting the chain gypsy off so I can remove the winch from the boat to fit a new winch.

Any help and ideas ????

 

[Farina 2]

On 17/08/2021 at 11:22 AM, strath said:

I want to replace my existing winch with a two way rope to chain gypsy, 8mm Din 776 chain

I have a Maxwell Nilsson wench, one direction, rope drum and chain gypsy, which is probably as old as the boat 1987 a Farr 1020. The winch stopped working a couple of years back and I rang Nilsson's who sugested taking the winch off to them for repair. The problem was I could get the rope drum off, but not the gypsy. The gypsy does not appear have a key and has two grub screws which screw onto the shaft which I could not get out. I finish up just taking the outer case off the motor and taking it to them and they put in new brushes which fixed the problem.

Now that I want to replace the winch, I am faced again with getting the chain gypsy off so I can remove the winch from the boat to fit a new winch.

Any help and ideas ????

 

Talk to the guys at James Nilsson. They were able to sell us a reversing motor. Now we can power down and up.

[marinheiro 347]

On 17/08/2021 at 11:22 AM, strath said:

I want to replace my existing winch with a two way rope to chain gypsy, 8mm Din 776 chain

I have a Maxwell Nilsson wench, one direction, rope drum and chain gypsy, which is probably as old as the boat 1987 a Farr 1020. The winch stopped working a couple of years back and I rang Nilsson's who sugested taking the winch off to them for repair. The problem was I could get the rope drum off, but not the gypsy. The gypsy does not appear have a key and has two grub screws which screw onto the shaft which I could not get out. I finish up just taking the outer case off the motor and taking it to them and they put in new brushes which fixed the problem.

Now that I want to replace the winch, I am faced again with getting the chain gypsy off so I can remove the winch from the boat to fit a new winch.

Any help and ideas ????

 

if you are junking the existing winch, don't mess around - cutoff wheel in a disc grinder to cut the gypsy off (it will be a copper/bronze casting so relatively soft), with protection on the surrounding deck and adjacent pulpit (some wet towels on top of hardboard or similar)

[dutyfree 166]

As mentioned talk to the guys at James Nilsson, they rebuilt my V3000? (I think) for way less than a replacement, even after paying for the professionals to come in and remove it.  There is nothing wrong with these, they were built to last.