We recently had some high (105 km/hr max gust) winds, and I think my windmill motor is toast.... I wasn't around for the storm, but it was working fine the day before. Here is a post on the system, from this spring:
http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2008/5/31/54134/8788
I took it down, and the motor was quite hard to turn. It smelled burnt, and there was a bit of brown tarry stuff coming from the vents. When I took it apart, the inside was quite gummed up with tar.
I am assuming that this is the end for the motor, but would be happy and surprised if someone could tell me it just needed to be cleaned and it would be fine.
The mill is made to furl, and I have seen it furling in lower winds. The dump load and electronics were fine. Not sure what happened, but it seems like it must have revved too high. Or is there something else that would contribute to a failure like this?
On the bright side, the tower and blades (TLG Trinado MM) survived unscathed.