Winch removal

[Jim Walsh]

These primaries were mounted 31 years ago. What I thought might be a bit of a project turned out rather routine. The bronze winches had been bolted directly to the cast bronze bases without benefit of any bedding compound. (Today Lewmar recommends the use of a bedding compound but I doubt they expect to encounter a cast bronze winch base.) The stainless slotted flat head machine screws used to mount the winches to the bases were held by nylon insert lock nuts. These were simple to remove and showed no signs of corrosion. I thought I'd have to break most of the fasteners off after sitting in a hostile salt environment all these years but that was not the case. Apparently Cape Dory didn't bother with a selection of SS bolt lengths, each had been cut to length after installation. Once the fasteners had been removed the winches simply lifted off the bases. Other than the fact the wind chill had the temperature down to 16F this task was simple.

[Gary H]

What did you use to clean and lubricate them?

[Jim Walsh]

Haven't done that yet but any mild degreaser works. I'll use turpentine to clean everything then any light machine oil (3 in 1 oil) on the pawls and a very light (very light) coat of Lewmar winch grease on everything else. Lewmar has videos on their website or check out youtube. You only use half of what you think is a sufficient amount of lube on winches.

[Skylark]

Liquid paraffin ( or tiki lamp oil ) is recommended by Lewmar for winch cleaning. It is far less irritating to the skin (w/o citronella). Once you have removed the grease and oil you can soak the bronze parts in vinegar (for a day or two). This remove the patina (if desired).

When you reassemble use a calcium sulphonate based grease. This will minimize oxidation. Grease should be applied in a thin layer only to the gears, bearings and bearing surfaces. Use a small amount of light oil (the old Lewmar manual shows the technician using "3 and 1 oil") on the pawls as grease may cause them to stick.

I found all of my winches (8 in total) were heavily greased. The only thing that this accomplished was to capture dirt.