Had my motor rebuilt recently and the service tech removed the thermal cutout wires. I’m not 100% where the are to be reconnected and he isn’t convenient to take back. Any thoughts and pictures would be much appreciated.
Lewmar winch motor thermal cutout wires
- Thread starter Bryno
- Start date
Let me further clarify; the thermal cutout connection from inside the motor, not on the solenoid side.
Me too. He said it was a ground and didn’t know what for. i told him after the fact what they were and should have had him put them on right then. figured it would be obvious where they connected, but not really.
I think it safe to say he was smoking crack at the time. The amp draw on those motors can be within limits but if they run too long, they will fry. Note the body is airtight (maybe even waterproof) and does not have cooling fins on the body.
There is only one thermal cut out (switch, breaker, or call it what you will) and it's buried within the motor where it will get cooked along with the motor. It's purpose is to open when it gets hot ............
........................ and cut off the 12V to the solenoid. Now the contactor stays open until the motor has a chance to cool.
This shows how all Lewmar windlasses disconnect the 12V control wire from the solenoid.
Thanks for the responses, but do we know where inside the motor these attach - inline with the brushes?
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ......................... the wires are only attached to a switch located inside the casing. These wires are not electrically attached to anything in the motor.
Last edited:
I’m not making myself clear, sorry. They go into the motor, as in your picture above and attach somewhere. I know the other end attached to the solenoid and footswitch, depending on the setup,; mine is a single speed setup.
Likely, they are just difficult to reach and I figured someone here had rebuilt these before.
All I can offer is to look at the wiring diagram and and ultimately it will become an "AHA" moment.
Below is the as-built drawing showing how mine is connected as opposed to the Lewmar schematic.
Ok, top left of picture where it says ‘motor thermal cutout’. Those two yellow wires go into the motor; where do the attach?
Ah, @Ralph Johnstone, is that a spec of dirt I see beside the red wire, that in the picture is unlabelled? You may have to be reported buddy. This is unacceptable behaviour.
The electrical contacts you are showing in your picture are the heavy lugs to the 12V contactors. The wire connections you are looking for would be for #16 AWG. Being a Lewmar windlass, I would expect the 12V control wire entry to be located exactly where mine is in the picture in #8 reply. Can you roll the motor and take a pic and we can go from there ?
From your behaviour at the Sylvia Hotel, I didn't think anything was unacceptable to you
!Here is the other side, but it’s not the big lug I’m concerned about, it’s the yellow wires (cutout) that are not connected to the internal of the motor.
I think it connects to the negative brush. Again, this is the internal connection of the cutout, not the external - 2 ends of thi wire ha know.
