Changing Forestay - Instructions

[david samuelson]

Hi.
Whenever I see a ‘How-do-I-change-the-wire-inside-my-roller-furler’ post, I always seem to be too busy to reply. Now I have time to explain my way and hope it saves some future hair-pulling.

With the Roller Furler off the vessel: How to put a new wire inside without taking apart the foils.
1. Make the wire a little longer than the ‘correct length’. I usually make it 2” (50mm) longer, (see # 8 below), and try to make the first 6 feet (2M) of the wire straight, (dyform/compact strand can be difficult).
2. All the sharp corners/edges of the end that is being pushed through the foils must be rounded. What I do is stand up, holding the cut end of the stay in one hand in front of me and a file in the other, and file the cut edge as I walk around the stay. Round the square edge and any pointy bits off. Don’t try to get a point but more a well-rounded end.
3. Do not put any tape on the end; it can come off and get stuck inside the foils.
4. Lay the wire out above the foils with the cut/filed end right at the top of the foils ready to push in. I put the top terminal on beforehand and push the wire down from the top.
5. You need 1 person pushing the wire in (from the top if you have already put on the top terminal), 1 person at the bottom (at the drum) and one in the middle.
6. Start pushing the wire in, not too hard. It will stop at the first join. The middle and bottom guys rotate the foils in the direction of the lay of the wire. If the foils are ever turned the wrong way you are in the ………, as it will unlay the wire. You will then never get it forward and if you are between joins you might not be able to get it back out either as it will be too big. At this point you will have to disassemble the foils and maybe the wire end will be damaged and you won’t be able to fit your terminal. You only have 2” to cut off (you added it in step 1 above).
7. As the foils are being rotated the pusher keeps a little pressure on the wire and it will find its way through the hole at the join. If you can get through one you get through them all. If it does not find the hole in 5-10 seconds pull the wire back just a little and try again. Try to keep the foils straight. As you progress you will need to push a little harder to overcome the added friction. At the last one or two joins the wire will be going up hill (because the drum raises the foils); sometimes a little shake of the foil, up and down, helps.
8. Cut off the 2” you added to the ‘correct length’. It was added in case the wire end was damaged while feeding it through the foils, and to return the wire end to the correct shape for a swageless terminal.

Pushing through probably takes me on average 3-4 minutes.
If you have/want to take all the foils apart, the good news is that you can check all the bearings inside and properly lok-tite all the screws (if that’s what you have holding the foils together) when putting them back in. Good luck

[neilpride]

Well, after hundreds of wires replaced in all kind of furlers i found your instructions disturbing and complicated , could be a nice way in those furlex with the one way plastic inner core but in a profurl or facnor dont work anyway like you explain , in short... i cut the end of the new forestay about a inch or 2 just to expose the inner core in a 316 1x19 wire , i do the same in the old one when is still inside of the furler , we splice neat the 2 cores with a strong special tape and pour a drop of vaseline in liquid state at the top end, one guy push the new wire from the top and other in the bottom asist to clear the old one, done in 1 minute.... is very important that the guy in the bottom drum dont pull the wire, just clear the old wire out of the way until the new one show up...


Cheers...