Jib sheet winch rebuild
Several months ago I started my first annual maintenance on my jib sheet winches. I got one apart and found rusted gears, and some pawls that where frozen. My brother has a machinist friend that wanted to take on the challenge of trying to free the pawls without hurting any part.
Since this is a Barient winch it has not been in production for quite some time and I found there are no parts available for servicing these winches. Bad news. The good news is I got the part back yesterday and it is bronze. So with proper preventative maintenance these winches will last forever. I did find where the water was getting into the winch. It is traveling down the main shaft. So when I put the port winch back together I packed that area with grease. I really doubt much water will get in there for a year. And since you are supposed to perform annual maintenance on winches it should do nicely.
I was really afraid that I wouldn’t be able to get the port winch back together. So I left the starboard winch on the boat for a reference. And that was all I needed. Once my brothers friend did his magic on the parts (not a scratch, and the parts look better than new!) I arranged them on the galley table along with my tools, winch grease, winch oil, and lots of shop towels. I removed the starboard winch and put it upside down on the galley table in the corner where I could see the gears inside. Then I started looking for gears that looked like the ones on the assembled winch. In about 6 hours I had packed the bearings, greased the shafts, put a light coat of winch grease all over every gear, and assembled the entire thing. I then installed the winch without the top on and greased the gears while turning to make sure the grease got distributed to all the gears. Then I greased the ring gear on the winch top and installed that. Everything works great. So I removed the the port winch again and put it upside down on the galley table. Then I removed the starboard winch and took it apart. Two of the gears have some light rust on them. So I will have the magic performed on them. The rest look in great shape, just caked in grease. I am removing the grease and cleaning all the bearings. Then I’ll assemble the starboard winch with the port winch as a reference. It was all much easier than I expected.
I am so happy that a project is moving again. It has been too long since there was forward momentum on the boat. I have been way to busy at work. It seems they think they own me. HA! The wind and the sea own me. And there is no arguing with those two. I feel the pull daily and it eats at me that I can’t move the boat right now. But with a little forward momentum comes great hope. And I am hoping the engine problem will be solved soon. Then I can go back to what I truly love. I can go sailing.