I had a similar problem. There is a clutch/gear that has to be taken out and
then disassembled. It pries apart. Clean and lube it. SL advised me that you
had to buy a new part. I did at a great cost and then found that the old one
can be serviced.

"Jeff Morris" wrote in message
...
After 5 years my windlass has suddenly developed a nasty problem. It is a
Simpson Lawrence Sprint 1000 that I use with a Delta 35, 50 feet of 5/16
chain
spliced to 9/16 NE 3-strand. While it seems to function in UP mode, when
I put
it in DOWN it grinds, squeals, and stalls within a half revolution. I was
hoping it was a washer stuck under the gypsy, but I pulled that apart and
the
same symptoms exist with just the shaft sticking up.

This means that the problem must be either in the reduction gears or in
the
motor. In either case, the next step appears to be removing the windlass
and
disassembling. It seems easy, I just have to convince my 8 year old
daughter to
crawl in the chain locker and back off the mounting nuts.

The windlass was used a lot for two years, not so much in the last few
years
(maybe twice last year). I always drive the boat over the anchor, and
always
break it out gently with the boat motion. The gypsy gets washed out, and
the
only annual maintenance is making sure the clutches are free to be used in
an
emergency (normally they spend their entire life locked up). As it stands
now,
I can use the windlass manually (though it's tedious - you actually have
to
convert it between manual deploy and manual recover modes), but I'm
guessing
that If I pull it out I'll be without a windlass until its fixed. I
assume that
if I try to use the motor in UP mode it will quickly die.

Does anyone have a guess as to the cause? I suppose I should hope its in
the
gear train, but it really feels like something is amiss in the motor. I
found
one post that these are permanent magnet motors, and the magnets can come
unglued from the cases. I also heard a motor can cost $1000! Are there
shops
that rebuild them? Any advice appreciated.

-jeff www.sv-loki.com
"I like sailing because it is the sport which demands the least energy"
Albert
Einstein