Manual windlass stuck clutch

[liveitwell]

The windless is big bold and bronze a heavy old tank of a windlass that has a rope barrel on the left and the slot for a bar in the middel and chain gypsy on the left with the tightenting nut all the way right. Ussually to freewheel the windlass The bar gets inserted into one of the slots that circle the tightening nut a dog is swung into place and the bar moved aft to 'crack' the nut then the windlass runns the chain out. Not too long ago i went to anchor in the style that is done forward, anchor dropped and boat 180's into the wind. This put incredible strain on the windlass and seemed to tighten that nut up to the point of being seized. Ive even put so much force trying to loosed the nut that I bent the bar (solid stainless rod!) also used a massive pipe wrench on the nut and succeded only in stripping a bunch of brass off. any suggestions before I tear into this thing and see whats up?

[onestepcsy37]

sounds like my abi windlass. works the same way. and i guess you've discovered that the windlass should not be used to take up the strain of an anchored boat.

i found that, when running the chain out, i needed to REALLY loosen the nut that holds the chain gypsy - i turn it out about five turns or more. for some unknown reason the nut tries to retighten itself as the chain runs out. not good.

i guess you can try pb blaster or heat. might also try tapping the nut with a plastic hammer while soaking in pb blaster. i needed to do that when my bronze thru hull wouldn't come apart.

[Mike OReilly]

I think we have the same windlass; it's an ABI/Plath. I don't have any wisdom for you on how to untighten the clutch, but it must have been an incredible wrenching force to lock it down so tightly.

On our windlass the "dog," as I think you put it, is swung up to lock the gypsy in place so the clutch does not take the anchoring load. Not sure if this is an option for your windlass, but if it is, I would definitely recommend doing this in the future.

[rocksculpter]

Mine was stuck for a couple of years, so like a fool I was playing out by hand. I've got two bars, a short one for everyday use and a three foot one for when I've got a lot of chain out. One day I decided somethings got to give and began jumping up and down on the big bar until it let loose. I had tried dousing it in WD-40 which might have helped. If it happens again I'm using a sledge on the bar. I now also have a SS sampson post that takes the load rather than the gypsy.

[Charlie]

I had a Loftrans manual windlass and it was bound. The clutch didn't work. I took it apart, hitting the brass parts with a hammer -- BAD IDEA. I mushroomed the parts. When taking it apart be careful. In my case the clutches were cones and the bearings were plastic. The plastic had swollen so I had to take the plastic off and uses sand paper to bring the bearings back into the correct tolerance. It was very tedious and time consuming but the price for new parts was outrageous. s/v Bella Star: Windlass Rebuild

[s/v 'Faith']

Heat. Heat and sharp hits on the bar with a hammer. A impact will do far more to loose a stuck nut then lots and lots of even force.

Good luck...