Parson outboard motors and gibb winches

[Oz-1]

Good evening everyone,
I want to ask if any of cruising members have any knowledge about the Chinese Parsun outboard engines. At the present I have a 2 stroke 8hp Tohatsu long shaft engine on my Flicka sailboat. In the UK we can no longer buy new 2 stroke outboards and the price for an 8 hp 4 stroke Parsun long shaft engine is very competitive. My second question is that i've got 2 old Gibb jib sheet winches on my boat. They are the model with bottom handles. The bodies are bronze as is the central post, but inside the winch body there seems to be a plastic or nylon bush. Last year both winches developed a lot of friction and now that i've got the boat home to work on, the winches are almost seized up. I've sanded the nylon bushes and the central spindle, but I can hardly get the winch body over the central spindle. This is happening with both winches. I wonder if any members have come across this problem? My apologies for the very long thread.