Hey guys, I have to tell you something about those winches because I had the same problem years ago with the winches binding up. The company in Connecticut that was supplying the fiber spools for the Barlow Winches, had received a shipment of inferior fiber that would cause the winch to bind up in the hot summer months. When the company finally found out about this they notified the O'Day Owner's Newsletter magazine, which was run by a guy who lived in Assonet Ma. at the time. I used to subscribe to newsletter, and this is where I found out about it. I don't remember the name of the company because it was very long ago, but they gave an address and they stated that if you had any problems with Barlow winches, you would only need to call or send them your name and address and they would send out some new fiber spools, free of charge. I called them and they shipped me two of these new spools and I had to install them myself. My mast winch never needed one, so I never replaced it. This goes way back to the late 1980s. You may be able to sand these fibers and make them work. The only guy that would have further knowledge of this would be Rudy Nickerson. I gave Rudy all my O'Day magazines including the free O'Day Newsletters that I used to receive from the O'Day factory years ago.