Cruising comments

  

 

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. 

Tags: Maintenance //