Winch eats the halyards

[team karst]

14mm main halyard getting trapped in the tailer during cranking. Very hard to pull out doubled line! I have replaced the plastic tailing pieces. Is #2 likely bent??

[nuku34]

With respect, it looks to me that the diameter of the halyard is too big for the winch size. The adjustable jaws of the self-tailing mechanism are built for a range of diameters. Any line above or below that diameter will cause problems.
Could you tell us the make and model of the winch?

[team karst]

Lewmar 44. The jaws are adjustable?

[Snore]

Two possibilities. First is that the line is too thick. Second is that the stripper is broken. I believe it is part#5 in the diagram. If the line is not stripped or removed from the winch it can get wedged underneath.

What size lewmar?

[team karst]

Parts 4, 5, 6 are new. But the braided line is able to push the stripper out of place

[Snore]

Originally Posted by team karst

Parts 4, 5, 6 are new. But the braided line is able to push the stripper out of place

The stripper should NOT move. Don’t recall how those winces assemble- but it shouldn’t move. Suggest you take apart another winch and compare the working winch to the defective one.

[Nekton73]

Ditto the stripper should not move. Something is amiss.


14mm may be larger than the max line size for your winch though. Check specs but I suspect 12mm is max. Still that should result in poor tailer grip and not override or trapping.

[team karst]

a 44 is speced at 9/16" max. 14mm is .55" 9/16 is .56"; so, very close.

cranking the winch to raise main is brutal when halfway up the winch tailer sucks up the loose end and causes a total jam, which is hard to clear. There is double line squeezed inside #2 above. Somehow the plastic stripper #5 is forced out of position. Its position is held by a feature inside #2.

I have a second 44 that I could swap the top end.

[Nekton73]

If you have a spare identical winch that you know works then I would just swap it out without changing anything and see if the problem persists. If it does, likely not the winch, if not then you can dig further.



If you are determined to swap parts then my approach would be to take both apart side by side, taking each part off in turn, laying them out so there is no possibility of confusing the order (or which goes to which winch) and inspecting for damage or differences.


One part of your initial post confuses me; you say that once the main is "halfway up the winch tailer sucks up the loose end and causes a total jam". I can't envision this.

- If the loose end is getting caught in the tailer have you tried keeping it out of the tailer and see if that solves the problem, temporarily at least?
- Are you suspecting that, at a certain point, the load on the winch is causing the problem? Again I can't see how, but...


When I installed new (to me) self tailing 32's on my boat I initially oriented them both so that the stripping arm was pointing in the same direction. While this worked fine on one side, on the other the tail fell onto the incoming line. It was clear pretty quickly that I needed to rotate it so that this wouldn't happen, so I did, and no problem since then.



But after saying all that, if your stripper arm is moving I still think there's a problem there.



Yes some tailer jaws are adjustable, usually via a couple of set screws located on the trim ring above them. Mine are not, yours may or may not be, I haven't looked them up but by the diagram you supplied it does not look like they are.

[wholybee]

If the stripper (#5) gets forced out of position, either it is broken, or part #2 is bent, or both. I suppose that it is possible the (4,5,6) assembly isn't fit together properly as well, but I think that would be obvious. Since you have a working winch, remove the nut (#1) on both of them and look at the fitment of (#2) over the collets (#3). Is the fitment the same on both winches? Where the finger of #2 fits over the finger of #5, is the clearance the same on both winches? Is the little nub on the end of the finger of #5 worn down or damaged at all?

FWIW, I keep a spare parts kit of commonly needed parts for emergencies, and #5 is in that kit. I've only had it break once, but after that, I make sure I have a spare. The collets are also easy to drop and lose, so keep some spares of those, and springs and pawls, which can break or get lost.

[Tin Tin]

can you post a photo of your winch and where the line feeds to the winch? It could be that your stripper needs to be re-positioned so gravity assists in clearing the tail.

[ggray]

The installation instructions for my Andersen winches show the proper orientation of the stripper/feeder. Not far off from pointed directly at the fellow cranking.

Sailed on a boat with the feeder pointed away from the crew, and you quickly realize it doesn't work so well!

Not the case here, but for a winch mounted on a vertical surface, feeder should be somewhat on the bottom side