Lewmar 48 EST alloy winch drum worn - sleeve it?

[WombatWhiskers]

Both our 48 EST winch drums are wearing (14 years and 140,000nm so I'm not complaining). The bottom main bearing area has lost all it's hardcoat anodizing.

Lewmar agent in NZ says "just grease it up heavily", doesn't even have a price on a new drum.

Question: does it make sense to sleeve the drum bearing surface? If so what material for the sleeve. The roller bearings are stainless, drum aluminum.

[Nicholson58]

The unit loading on these is so low as to be of little consequence. I would use an EP Moly grease on the drum. Don't over grease.

If you really want to re-plate it, see if you can find an aluminum anodizer who can redo it for you. It will need to be stripped down to only the aluminum drum with no other parts. The outside of the drum is hard anodize (dark gray). This is different than ordinary clear anodize (sometimes colored red,blue, gold etc) that we see on many parts. Before you send it in for a re-do, ask if they will have to strip the other plating off to start. It is important to make sure the plater does hard anodize. We send our stuff to FORT WAYNE HARD ANODIZE in Ft Wane, Indiana.

If you choose to have a sleeve pressed in, I guess a heat shrunk/press fitted SS or bronze liner would be in order. You will need a machine shop. Perhaps an auto re-builder that sleeves engine cylinders could do it. Probably big cost.

Here is another option - Check out Wolf's Marine in Benton Harbor, Mi. Liquidation stuff & bargains. Photo from their floor last weekend. The web site shows a tiny portion of the inventory Home Page

Also, Torresen's Marine in Muskegon Michigan has salvaged winches from our lightly used great lakes boats.

[WombatWhiskers]

Thanks 10^6 - you packed a lot of valuable information into your reply.

>The unit loading on these is so low as to be of little consequence.

That's very helpful to know. Have you seen the hardcoat stripped on other drums like this? I think it is down to raw alloy.

BTW, the winch in question is our solent sheet winch. When powered-up the sheet load is right at the limit of what a age-72 human can crank. The "song" of the 14mm Spectra sheet at that point sings a high-pitched "please stop".

>I would use an EP Moly grease on the drum. Don't over grease.

What is your favorite grease for this?

I decided to substitute Evinrude-Johnson Triple Guard lower unit grease on the main bearings when I reassembled 2 days ago. Is that a bad idea? It's not a big deal to clean and relube once I get the best grease in hand.

I applied the official Lewmar Winch Grease on the gears.

>If you really want to re-plate it

On your advice I see we should be OK running on the bare alloy. So I won't sleeve or re-anodize.

>Wolf's Marine ... Also, Torresen's Marine

Thanks I just sent emails to both.

Cheers, Steve

[Nicholson58]

Find EP Molly grease at the auto parts places. Sold usually for wheel bearings. Lewmar grease is expensive re-packaged stuff. I use it if I find it cheap.

Perhaps a new 2-speed of pretty big size might be in order. 52 foot cat needs bog stuff. Our primaries are Lewmar 65 & 55 old stuff.

Here is a site I found for parts. I have "early standard". Many parts are unavailable for ours. There are schematics here and parts lists. I have access to a modern machine shop so I made replacement parts & spares for some obsolete items.

I had one small winch donated to me from the skipper of a boat I used to race. He retired it because it was too small. We crushed the drum onto the bearings such that it would not turn. I managed to pry the drum off. A look-up on the bearings told me the ID the drum should be. We had adjustable reamers in the tool bin so I opened the ID back up to specs. Its been on my 20 ft. cat for many years now.

Lewmar Winch Schematics

[WombatWhiskers]

>Find EP Molly grease at the auto parts places

Right, thanks. Do you think I need to replace the Evinrude-Johnson Triple Guard I just used straight away?

>Here is a site I found for parts.

Thanks heaps for the Pyacht link. Our drums are p/n 45000414 = $295.40. That's not that bad. Cheaper than sleeving I'm sure.

I will put my inside calipers on to get a good fix on the ID of the wearing segment. Then keep checking as we put some use on. If it is wearing a lot I'll order a new drum, and some spare stainless roller bearings.

Do you think there's much chance the "rough" drum ID will damage the Lewmar roller bearings?

[Nicholson58]

As long as the ID bore of the aluminum drum stays smooth without raised or spaulled surface I would not worry. On the grease, just wipe off with a rag and re-grease. Molly transfers into the surface and is self lubricating at low speed and high load. Sure tempting to put a spare drum in a locker.

[WombatWhiskers]

> spare drum..

It is tempting - but we can't carry a duplicate of everything on board. We're perilously close to that condition already - while we strive to defend our DWL from overweightness. We are one of the few cruising catamarans that is not dragging around transoms underwater.

>...grease, just wipe off with a rag and re-grease

I think I'm learning that my winch service procedure has been way too hospital-like. Is that your routine for winch servicing? Wipe everything except pawls with rags, then brush on new moly grease? Pawls and springs deserve a careful cleaning and oiling (I think) and defending from encroaching excess gear grease.

There's might be an excellent youtube video on how to service Lewmar, but we so rarely have enough bandwidth to download such. Thing is - if you find such a video, you don't know it is valid unless you have a reason to trust the source.

[Nicholson58]

If the grease is old, dirty, dried out then you need to solvent wash. It sounded like you had just recently greased. When we took possession of ROXY we removed all 17 winches. I disassembled each one into a plastic bucket and placed it in the parts washer where I work. I hosed off the parts in the evening and brought the parts home where I assembled in the basement. The 28 years of grease dissolved left about a tablespoon of hard dirt particles from each large winch. The running surfaces were in remarkably good shape despite poor housekeeping. Some small plastic parts were broken so I had to make new replacements.

[WombatWhiskers]

Cool, thanks, very helpful. I think I've been over-servicing Adagio's winches. Until the anodizing started failing, the Lewmar Winch grease has always looked nearly fresh.

I've usually been able to find a friendly mechanic where I could use their parts wash. The best is when they have the automated parts washer.

This time no access so I used diesel for the main bearings and drum, then towel dried. Is there any residue from diesel cleaning that we need to worry about?

[Nicholson58]

Diesel is pretty OK as a solvent. Just stinks. remove as much as you can after cleaning. I think Diesel may oxidize naturally given enough time and leave a residue. Sort of like a thin layer of crappy varnish.