Lewmar Windlass V3 Drive Key Rplacement

[laser]

Hi

I have a horizontal Lewmar V3 windlass and it seems my drive key has sheared. If anyone knows the best way to access it to replace it I could use experienced advice.

The manual shows the assembly blowup and parts but does not explain replacement and I am surprised there isnt a youtube for this.

Thanks

[Adrian Chen]

From memory I think you will need to remove the motor/gearbox unit. If you have a quickfit type there is a clamp that you remove and the assembly will then slide off the shaft. I remember it being quite a close fit so required some jiggle to get mine off.

Have something underneath to catch any of the little posts that are a loose fit.

If you have the bolt up type then i guess you just remove the securing nuts to remove the drive assembly.

Its a pretty chunky key to shear so good luck.

[laser]

Originally Posted by Adrian Chen

From memory I think you will need to remove the motor/gearbox unit. If you have a quickfit type there is a clamp that you remove and the assembly will then slide off the shaft. I remember it being quite a close fit so required some jiggle to get mine off.

Have something underneath to catch any of the little posts that are a loose fit.

If you have the bolt up type then i guess you just remove the securing nuts to remove the drive assembly.

Its a pretty chunky key to shear so good luck.

Thank you. I saw photos of the quickfit somewhere. I will look closely at it to see which I have. Thank you for the advice. I would prefer to do it the best way first. Too often something else breaks when you try to fix something on a boat.

[billknny]

By far the most common cause of this failure of the key is people not keeping the clutch plates greased!

They are designed to slip if the load exceeds design, and if they are dry they stick, then the shaft, key, and/or keyway take the brunt of things and fail in difficult to fix ways. A key twisted and warped can make getting the drum off a real nightmare.

GREASE YOUR WINDLASS CLUTCH! It seems counter intuitive that this needs grease since they need to NOT slip to lift the anchor. But they DO need grease.

[Jetx]

Just went through this with my older Lewmar windlass, and discovered out what a PITA these can be to apart. Post #6 here describes a method that finally worked for me. Windlass Removal

[double u]

PLEASE: let horizontal be horizontal & vertical be vertical....the orientation of the SHAFT is what counts...

[laser]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I did get it apart crow bar and pb blaster. In the end it wasnt the key but it was the worm gear linkage itself was worn out. The unit was 11 years old and we are full time so it gets a lot of use.

I have a new one being delivered tomorrow and should be fully functional soon. By the way, pricing for Lewmar windlasses is all over the place. Its crazy that the price range I found for my V3 vertical gypsy only was from $1,700 to $2,700. The highest was the authorized lewmar repair guys in Ft Lauderdale that also supply many of the Lauderdale marine stores...so they all had that same price. In addition, uless you are lucky, they don’t stock these. They take your order and then have Lewmar drop ship it to you.

I chose the best price and in the process found a very good seller. I bought through Darkhorse Marine in Florida.