Sticky Barlow

[sneuman]

I got ambitious this weekend and decided to do maintence on all the winches. The three Lewmars were a snap, but I have one Barlow with a cap screw that I can't remove. It's supposedly a hex (allen) wrench, but if it is, it's completely stripped.

I've tried various methods of trying to grab and turn the screw (which is inside the winch-handle coupling).

Anyone with experience servicing Barlows have ideas ?

[GordMay]

See if this helps, "Servicing your Barient and Barlow Winches":
HUTTON-ARCO Yacht Winches

[Steve Rust]

I have a Barlow 25 at hand and took a look at it. The Allen wrench is 3/16 inch. If yours is stripped out you may have to use a large enough drill bit so that it will take the head off the cap bolt. Once you get the drum lifted off there should be enough bolt sticking out to grab with a vice grip. A screw extractor bit would be another option to try. It is a stainless steel bolt into stainless threads so hopefully the threads are not siezed up. If so this central shaft is replaceable or it could be drilled out and retaped with new threads. Check out the site Gord mentioned for parts. They are near Sydney, Australia.

[sneuman]

Gord, Steve, many thanks.

Steve, I think I might need to take your advice and drill out the screw. If it's a (hopefully) standard thread, maybe I could find a replacement without having to write to Australia.

[Steve Rust]

The bolt is a 1/4" 20 thread count. You should end up with about 3/16" of the bolt sticking up after you drill off the head and get the drum lifted off.

[delmarrey]

I have some old Barlow 24's. If you need parts, let me know (except the bases, they're shot).

[sneuman]

thanks for the offer, delmarrey! i'm going to get back to it this thursday. will let you know how I fare.

btw, i also discovered that my windlass is completely seized. it's a Simpson-Lawrence SL-555 "Seatiger" I discovered that Lewmar bought out S-L. Anyway, I suspect that's going to be a much bigger challenge than the Barlow. I don't have the money to replace the windlass right now, so I am going to try my best to resurrect this one!

[Joli]

Originally Posted by sneuman

thanks for the offer, delmarrey! i'm going to get back to it this thursday. will let you know how I fare.

btw, i also discovered that my windlass is completely seized. it's a Simpson-Lawrence SL-555 "Seatiger" I discovered that Lewmar bought out S-L. Anyway, I suspect that's going to be a much bigger challenge than the Barlow. I don't have the money to replace the windlass right now, so I am going to try my best to resurrect this one!

That seems to be fairly common. If you can get it open you may be able to losen things up with lube, time, heat, and torque. Time being the best for frozen parts.

[delmarrey]

I have an S/L Sprint 1000. It looks as though the shaft runs in a bushing and I'll bet your gears maybe dry/rusty. I would agree with joli.

[Chief Engineer]

"Sticky Barlow" I know her!!!!!!! I met her down in the Keys Last April.....

[delmarrey]

Here is the size of the pawl springs as per PM.

[stevensc]

There is a tool called an "Easy Out" you can find them in many hardware or auto parts places, get one the right size for the opening where the allen wrench is supposed to fit and it might be able to back it out. First apply a liberal dose of good penetrant to the treaded area or the joint.
Good luck
Steve

[Steve Pope]

The springs look the same as the Barbarossa / Harken ones ( well they would wouldn't they as they do the same job) unfortunately my spares are onboard and the boat is 1 3/4 hours away otherwise I would measure them for you. My take is that there is possibly 1 or 2 suppliers of pawls and springs to the winch industry and they are a standard size. The larger the winch the more pawls used. I have a replacement pawl carrier for a Barbarossa that has 4 pawls to the original carriers 2 pawls.