Problem with South Pacific 700F Windlass

[scottishguy]

I have a South Pacific 700F windlass with 50m of nylon 12mm rope and 5m of 6mm chain. This used to work more or less consistently with just the occasional slip or twist of chain to deal with.

Lately the slipping has been getting worse to the point that it slips constantly and the brake no longer works i.e. I can pull the rode from the gypsy by hand.

The rope and chain are almost new and I bought quality nylon rope to minimise the slippage so I think the problem must be with the winch itself.

Has anyone had similar problems with this unit?

cheers
Jock

[ozscott]

mate - is it a nylon Gypsy and are you saying that the rope that you can pull through is slipping, ie your not saying that the gypsy itself is free wheeling when you pull the rope. If its a free wheeling gypsy then its probably a broken clutch mechanism for the freefall (it could be fractured if you have free fallen the anchor and stop the fall before it reaches bottom). If its just slipping through the gypsy its probably wear on the tangs that grap the rope. I have the same model and upgraded to nylon rope and stainless gypsy at the same time, to avoid slip from wear and poly rope. From memory it might have required 11mm though (or maybee 12mm versus the poly 13mm I cant remember, but there was a 1mm difference mate).

Cheers

[scottishguy]

There's 2 types of slippage that I experience. When retrieving the anchor, the rope slips on the gypsy (which is nylon) by that I mean the rope jams and the gypsy keeps turning.

The other type of slippage is where the gypsy turns when it's supposed to be locked, so if I tug on the rope it will turn the gypsy and pay out some rope.

I've just noticed that the little plastic screw on the side that switches between freefall and power out, this seems to keep turning, by that I mean I mean I can continue to turn this screw in any direction so it does not seem to be engaging with anything.

It does sound like a broken clutch, is it possible to get into these units to repair them or am I up for a replacement winch?

[ozscott]

mate assuming its out of warranty strip it down and have a look - after unbolting its just the screws on the bottom of the stainless cover plate. You will then see how the clutch fork engages. You can see whats broken. You can then ring SF and ask them for a replacement part and fit it, or otherwise send it down to them. I would get the stainless gypsy if you can fix the clutch problem first.

Cheers

[ozscott]

I will bring this one back to life. The plastic sprocket on the inside of my stainless gypsy just broke...its just 2 plastic tags that hold it...so its the weakest part of the winch and I think its designed to be the bit that fails before too much shock is transferred onto the motor and gear set. Its easy to fix and it could easily be done on the water if you have an allen key.

Cheers