MAC 26X winch questions - Lewmar 6

[Gary N]

The starboard winch on our 2000 26X was not working correctly yesterday. The winch will rotate perfectly and it locks on each rachet position when it is turned by hand. However, when the handle is used to wind the winch in the normal working way, the internal mechanism does not engage sometimes.

The working port winch has about 10 or 12 positions that the handle engages in when it is wound anti-clockwise around the winch. Each time the handle engages one of these locking position there is a faint audible click. I.e. this one works fine.

The non working starboard winch does not have these clicking positions and there is no audible click. Sometimes the handle engages as it is turned anti clockwise but not all of the time. In other words the normal winching mechanism does not engage all of the time.

I downloaded a PDF document from Lewmar that shows in one page, a pictorial breakdown of the winch and has a few sentences about disassembly and re-assembly. It all looked very straight forward.

However, I have never taken a winch apart and I was looking for some advise on what to do here. I can see that if the top circlip is removed then the winch can be lifted off. Is this something that can be done with the winches mounted on the boat? I have visions of pawls and springs jumping into the water.

Is it possible to remove the circlip, pull the winch off, remove all bearings etc from the part of the winch bolted to the boat, bag all the bits to take home and clean and service the winch off the boat. The manual talks about the use of cleaning fluids and that sounds like a disaster waiting to happen on a nice white GRP surface.

Also the big question is, is this winch fixable?

[Kelly Hanson East]

Always fixable - pretty simple inside, actually.

Build a cardboard tent around the winch with thin cardboard and duct tape. Tape inside and outside. This will contain any parts from going overboard. They get lost just as easily on land as at sea, the principal difference being on land is you will waste time looking for them, while at sea you know Davy Jones has 'em....

[Captain Kimo]

Ahoy Gary,
Saw a Lewmar Representative disassemble and assembly a demo winch at a boat seminar. Looked pretty simple, especially the "dummy proofing" of the parts for only going in ONE way. He recommended the purchase of a universal tune up kit from Lewmar before starting. It is suppose to have the parts that wear most frequently.

[Gary N]

They get lost just as easily on land as at sea, the principal difference being on land is you will waste time looking for them, while at sea you know Davy Jones has 'em....

That thought will keep me highly amused.

Ahoy Gary,
Saw a Lewmar Representative disassemble and assembly a demo winch at a boat seminar. Looked pretty simple, especially the "dummy proofing" of the parts for only going in ONE way. He recommended the purchase of a universal tune up kit from Lewmar before starting. It is suppose to have the parts that wear most frequently.

Very encouraging. It makes a lot of sense to get a tune up kit and also have the right sort of cardboard/gaffer tape on hand. Also I think a few pairs of surgical gloves would be a good idea.

I will take this apart and report back. Thanks for the info.

Gary

[Hamin' X]

Take pictures.

~Rich

[CFCassidy]

I've done this and as others have noted it is very straightforward. Here is a pointer to the Lewmar manual which has pictures and should give you some confidence. Good luck.

http://www.pyacht.com/Lewmar-Winch-Service-Manual.pdf

Charlie

[Gary N]

Charlie - That is the manual that I saw. It is very brief and it would be more useful if there were more detailed and higher resolution pictures. There is enough to show how simple these things are so I will use what is there.

[Kelly Hanson East]

After you are all done, you can post your high res pictures here, of course....

[Gary N]

I will use my third arm to take pictures as I am going and will post them.

[Gary N]

OK. I sorted this out today but unfortunately forgot my camera.

Basically this is so simple that if it ever happened again I would not hesitate to remove the winch while under sail, spray some wd40 in there and replace it and sail on.

The winch is removed by removing the split circlip on the top of the winch. Very easy to do with a small screwdriver or knife. It is also to hold it as it is removed. Once removed the winch body can be lifted off. There are no roller bearings in the No 6 winch so keeping the inside of the winch clean and oiled or greased would be quite important I would think. As there are no bearings there are no bearings to fall out.

There are 2 pawls at the top of the body and 2 at the bottom which remained in place as I removed the body. Strangely the Lewmar kit has 6 pawls and springs. I could see that one of the pawls was sticking which was causing the problem. The pawls lift out when the spring in the pawl is moved back to remove tension and the pawl and spring can be lifted out. I cleaned the parts with White Spirit and fitted new pawls and springs - very easy to do. Some of those ear cleaning cotton buds would have been very useful.

I had bought some expensive Lewmar Winch oil at someones recommendation but I am not sure if it is the right thing in this small winch. I used the oil to lubricate the pawls but also put some high quality grease in the main bearing and around the top of the winch under the top cap. My common sense tells me that you need a light oil for the pawls but a thicker grease for the bearing body. too much grease would cause the pawls to stick.

Anyway, very easy to do and I will probably do dismantle them every few months and re-lube them.