windlass free fall

[diverphil]

hi, finally got to the boat and fitted fire Ext and new batteries at weekend, so I thought I would check the anchor chain as well, we have a lewmar pro1000 windlass, it has a 1/2 inch drive on the motor side and a nut with 3 x 1/2 drive holes in it on the other side (next to the gypsy) I thought that by undoing the nut it should free wheel for me to pull the chain out by hand. is this correct ?

if so then it looks like its seized on the clutch mechanism.  has anyone ideas of what's inside the clutch part and can it be stripped down

phil

[symphony2]

The standard windlass does not have a free fall, only the Pro Fish version, although free fall conversion kits are available. Not sure what is involved in the conversion nor what it costs. Never had any difficulty with the power down nor felt the need for free fall.

[diverphil]

Ok thanks for that answer.i will stop looking to fix whats not wrong.😁 .havnt hot an instruction book and cant find one on their site.i assumed there would be a way of dropping it quick in a
n emergency

[JEN-et-ROSS]

Hi...Just to add, our windlass does have freefall and power down but we never use it. I lower the anchor by hand, even with our 25kg anchor it's perfectly safe, controllable and fast to lower it 'hand over hand' until it reaches the bottom and then to drop the chain back onto the gypsy when the required scope is laid.....
Having said that, I wouldn't want to retrieve it by hand...........Bill.

[Domi409]

On my boat, I had the same issue (may be not same windlass). The wheel was in fact "glued" by the old grease. After removing it and cleaning it it worked fine. It is anyhow good practice to open and grease correctly the moving parts.