I have a Galley Maid 12 volt windlass on my trawler. It has a DC
motor with separate terminals for the field winding (F1, F2) and the
armature (A1, A2). Measuring the terminal voltages under load, I'm
getting readings of about 6 volts on each set of terminals. The
polarity on the armature winding reverses to change rotation
direction.

My first reaction at seeing 6 volts was that I was getting a lot of
voltage drop somewhere in the cables, controller box or terminals.
Now that I take a close look at the controller circuit however, it
looks like the field and armature windings end up in series instead of
parallel. If that is in fact the case, 6 volts at each winding would
be just about right.

Is there anyone here familiar with the normal way of connecting up the
field and armature windings on DC motors?