Winch Service

[irwinsailor]

How offen should winches be serviced and cleaned?

[GordMay]

1. Keep winches clean; rinsing after each salt-water sail, and otherwise as conditions demand.
2. Most authorities recommend annual service - strip, clean & lubricate.
3. Anytime you sense "friction".
- Saw an on-line maintenance instruction somewhere - will re-search & advise. if I find it.
Regards,

[GordMay]

Winch Manuals, including:
1. General Maintenance
2. Barient
3. Lewmar
can be found at
www.cncphotoalbum.com/indexes/winchndx.htm


Lots of other good stuff on the cncphotoalbum site.

Regards,
Gord

[irwinsailor]

I serviced 2 yesterday, 14 to go. One of the winches that I did had dust where whe grease once was. I can not believe how much better they work. I think I will need to get the manuals for my 55 and 65 Lewmar winches because they are much more complicated that the others.

[irwinsailor]

Is there a grease that I can buy that is not winch grease? 3.5 ounces for $11. will get costly.

[GordMay]

A couple of usefull websites /w winch (& other) info':

www.alohaowners.com
click on "Manuals" then "Barient/Lewmar"


Regards,
Gord

[GordMay]

One more

www.arco-winches.com/barient.html

Gord

[Gisle]

GordMay once whispered in the wind:
OOPS! Previouse post should have read
www.arco-winches.com/barient.html
Sorry
Gord

You can edit your post after posting Gord. I take away the link that's not working for you ...

[tenknots]

Irwinsailor,
I recently serviced my Lewmar 55 three speed winches - they're more complex, but if you're mechanical, it's not hard. The first one I did, I used a digital camera as I was disassembling so I could see how to get them back right. By the third one, I could do it blind-folded. There's also an exploded view at the Lewmar site.

The big winches like these are removed from the bases with three allen screws after you take off the top plate that has the speed button on it.

Make sure you put the spacers back right and buy a whole bunch of pawls. The three speeds use 6-8 and there are two different ones, though I found only a couple were worn. Usually the pawls come with the springs - replace those too.

I used kero to clean and then let them dry for a day. You can use a good quality water pump grease, like lubriplate, but be sparing. Too much will collect dirt and gum them up.

Takes 3-4 hours each.

[aeg193]

irwin sailor: I use a very light film of synthetic grease on mine so as not to gum them up. And it seems to work very well. The heat of summer or the cold of the fall doesn't seem to have any effect on the grease. And isn't very expensive either if I remember right.



s/v golightly 35' Young Sun

[Sonosailor]

Irwinsailor:

The amount of grease required per winch is low, so 3.5 ounces for $11 will go quite far. I am using teflon water resistant trailer ball grease for the greasable areas, and 3 in 1 oil for the pawls. I don't know if this is good or better, but the cleaning and inspection may be more important than what you use.

As for how often, consider this:

For us seasonal boaters, once a season, for others, 2-3 times per year. The grit gets in the grease and causes wear, and it is good to get that out. In my case, I bought a six year old boat with large Meissners. I took four apart, and found two with broken 5/16" shafts holding a set of sprockets and pawls. Had they been cleaned and inspected, maybe they still would have broken. But since they were not inspected, the broken shafts ground out the sprockets until they were offset, then they started tearing at the spindles. Maybe I can get parts, maybe not.

Check the replacement cost of the whole unit for motivation to get in there regularly.

[irwinsailor]

I just finished the last of my 18 winches! When I thought about how much it would cost to replace all those winches the cost of grease seamed small. I spent $80 on grease to service $25000-$30000. worth of winches. they work like new!

[allene222]

Originally Posted by GordMay

A couple of usefull websites /w winch (& other) info':

Aloha Owners Association
click on "Manuals" then "Barient/Lewmar"


Regards,
Gord

The above link seems broken. I have collected many winch service manuals here: Winch Service Manuals

Allen

[beetle]

Originally Posted by irwinsailor

How offen should winches be serviced and cleaned?

I service (e.g., disassemble, strip grease, inspect, re-grease) the winches each year. What I actually do is usually strip one winch each month and keep working around the boat.

- rob/beetle