Winch Maintenance

This was a fairly easy project, especially if you have ever worked on bicycles. I have four winches (actually 6 if you count the two on the mast), two on top of the bulkhead for the jib sheets and two on the combings for the genny sheets. This project just involved removing the winches or all the parts of the winches that come off the boat, cleaning the parts, greasing and oiling them and reinstalling everything. No major reconstruction or creativeness required!
Jib sheet winch with a Wincher	Removing the slip ring	Look Ma, no bearings!	Remove the wedgie thingie	Take out the inner barrel. That's it!
Here is one of my jib sheet winches. The blue thing is a wincher which almost makes it like a self tailing winch. They work very nicely, so nice in fact that I moved them to my genny winches. The key to getting the winches apart is the key (pun intended) or wedge. I did not see it at first because of the old grease but once you see it just push on one end and it will pop out. The jib winches did not have bearings. The drum fits on top of the shaft and just slides on the grease. I guess this works for this winch because the load is lighter than the genny winch.
Bagged for the winter	Genny sheet winches, two speed	The backing plate	Again, remove the slip ring	A bit more guts this time.
I did not have to take the jib winches off because the shaft has no moving parts. I just bagged them and will clean them in the spring. The genny winches are two speed and to get at all the gears the winch must be removed from the boat. To access the screws you have to remove the drum and bearings.
Remove the bearing clustah (as we say in Maine)	Hmm... rust. Not good.	Clamp the nuts with vice grips	Can you tell which drill I use to sand the bottom?	Now, just remove (not!).
I used vice-grips underneath to hold the nuts then heated the screws with a heat gun to soften the caulk. The winches came up after a little persuasion with a heat gun and a putty knife.
Pre-labeled PORT so they must have been maintained at one time	All the bits pre-cleaning	This grease is pretty old and stiff	This gear does not come off	At least there is no rust
These winches have a lot of moving parts because they are two speed. There was only one gear that did not come off but it was easy to clean. I did not see any parts that were worn but I did have a maintenance kit that had new pawls and springs.
Always take lots of pictures so you remember how it went back together	After a kerosene bath	Let dry for a few months	Splish splash we were taking a bath	Do not grease the pawls
I cleaned everything in kerosene. It is important that you let the parts dry so that no kerosene is left that would dilute the new grease. Since I was not going to put these back on until spring they had plenty of time to dry.
Inner pawls for the low gear	Lewmar winch grease for the bearings, light oil for the pawls	Not too much grease (it would just squeeze out anyway)	Grease the bearings	Good thing this part doesn't show
When reassembling do not grease the pawls, use only light oil. One of the reasons I was doing the maintenance is that the pawls were no long clicking when I used them. I think they had been greased and the grease had stiffened with age. Also, go easy on the grease, too much will make the winch too sluggish.
Grease the gear teeth	Oil the pawls	Done! Ready to put back on the boat.	Ahhh, a nice spring day	Lightly grease and reassemble
Spring is here and time to reassemble. Nothing too challenging here.
This can of oil has lasted me at least 30 years!	Done! The winchers have been moved to the genny winches	Bevel the edges of the holes.	Obviously these are not original equipment winches	Tape to hold the screws in place
I did add a bevel to the screw holes so that the caulk would form a gasket and seal better. Add caulk and torque down.
Caulk underneath	Voila!	Custom washers to fit against the deck	Torque down the screws and wipe off the excess caulk	Here you can see how close the bolts are to the edge of the deck.
The person who installed these had to cut some washers so they would fit against the edge of the deck. I saved these for reuse. After using them for one season they work much better than before and the pawls make nice happy clicking noises.