Repairing my Maxwell-Nilsson windlass
Mike
Earlier this year I repaired my orphaned Maxwell-Nisson VR-700 windlass. Cost me about twenty bucks or so and a lot of head scratching. I don't know how many others have this or a similar windlass onboard their Nonsuch. But, I have recently posted my mechanical journey to anchoring bliss. I hope it might have some useful information for others before they throw an old windlass overboard and possibly hit Neptune on the head. You know nothing good will come from that!<g> Anyway here are the posts:
Mike
BIANKA
1986 30U |
Joseph L. Tierney
Mike:
Very thorough and interesting post.
I repaired my 1992 Maxwell anchor windlass this past Spring and learned several lessons, all of them the hard way. I ended up needing to get help from my local Maxwell authorized service rep. Maxwell has a service outlet for the US, located in California. I found them very patient and helpful. I think I would have done better to have the service rep do the whole job from the start. As Dirty Harry said: "A man's gotta know his own limitations."
1. I needed to use a prop puller to get the line drum off the top of the shaft. It had not been pulled for several years, at least. It should be removed and the above-deck components inspected and cleaned at least annually.
2. The shaft, with the attached gear box and motor below the deck needed to be forced to get it to drop. I used a piece of clear cedar 2x4 to cushion 3 blows on the top of the shaft with a small sledge hammer. It dropped, but the blows, even cushioned as they were, buggered up the threads at the top of the shaft where the clutch nut attaches. I had the threads repaired by a machine shop. Stainless steel may be hard to cut, but it is surprisingly malleable, and the three cushioned blows were enough to compress and expand the threads so they no longer fit the nut.
3. I removed the gear box and motor as an assembled unit - very heavy. I had rigged a safety line to hold the gear box and motor so that it would not crash down on top of the anchor chain. It is better to remove the motor first and then the gear box. My gear box is lubricated with oil, not grease, so it can spill if you are not careful. The two units can be reassembled separately as well.
4. The oil level specification uses the oil level as seen through a clear plexiglass hex-headed plug (sight glass) on the side of the gear box. It cannot be used unless the gear box is level. But the gear box is not level when mounted on the boat because the windlass is not on the center line of the foredeck. So you must have the gear box sitting on a level surface to use the sight glass to add the correct amount of gear oil. The gear box must be removed anyway in order to replace or add the gear oil through the open top of the gear box because you cannot add oil through the sightglass.
5. I replaced all the oil seals (three in all), and then had to do two of them a second time because I overfilled the gear box with oil. If you overfill the gear box, it WILL blow out the seal. Counterintuitive, but I have demonstrated it to be true.
6. The faces of the bronze clutch cones should be lightly greased with lithium grease annually. This prevents galling on the surfaces. If the clutch cones gall, the clutch will not disengage, and you will be unable to use the line drum without the chain gypsy also moving. Counterintuitive to have grease on a clutch face, but it is true.
Joe Tierney Allegro NS33 #64 Annapolis, MD
Mike
Joe:
Sounds at least like you had a better experience with factory service on your windlass than I did. What I did not mention in the blog is at first I was not going tackle the gear box problem myself. I also bought it to a "factory rep" for windlasses who is in my area. He told me the motor was shot. Which was nonsense because I had already tested the motor at home. I think he was not used to working on this case ground windlass. He also had a different used windlass on the shelf that he could sell me for $500. Uh huh! <g>. At least he did not charge me anything. I then bought it to a machine shop to help get the shaft removed. Should have been a piece of cake for a machine shop. After a week I did not hear anything. I went back and found the the windlass was still sitting in the corner and sailing season was approaching. So I took it back and decided to try and tackle it my self.
It seems it's getting harder and harder to find good repair people who know what they are doing so I'm doing more and more myself and feeling better about it. At least when I'm successful.<g>
Mike
BIANKA
1986 30U
--- On Tue, 9/1/09, Joseph L. Tierney <tiern...@verizon.net> wrote: |