Fulex Furler Problems

[KenK13623]

I have a 2000 Hunter 310 with the original Furlex furler. A couple of years ago, I started to have issues when unfurling the jib. Essentially, it does not completely deploy. There could be 2 to 5 turns on the furler remaining and I sometimes have to go forward and do the last couple of turns by hand. I have tried to follow the directions to lube it but that doesn't seem to make much of a difference. I had increased the tension a couple of years back as I thought it may have been a bit loose. I have backed that off as i thought it may have been causing the problem but it still does not unfurl very well. In fact in general, it seems to be difficult to unfurl and furl. Espeicially, when i compared it to a friends Hunter 34. Although, his boat is about 4 or 5 years newer than mine .. I have not gone up the mast to do anything with the bearings or grease at the mast..

Any suggestions or known problems..

Thanks,
Ken K.

 

[Serena1]

Last year we received our new H e33. Throughout the season I had issues with furling the foresail. I actually needed the winch to bring it in. I had the dealer look at it once or twice but was never resolved. (the season was short for us, so we left it until this spring)

During winter storage, our mast needed to come down. When the boat was commissioned again this spring, I brought up the issue with our rigger.

The solution...too much tension on the forestay. Basically , I can now furl the foresail with one hand.

 

[amcmahon]

I have a Furlex 100 installed 11 years ago and still works great. Recommend removing the foresail which will bring down the upper (halyard) swivel so you can lubricate. The top of the sail is attached to it. One warning, be careful as you lower the swivel. Do not let it get to the sail feeder on the forestay extrusion. There are two plastic semi-circle bushings inside the upper swivel and if the swivel hits the sail feeder, the bushings will pop out (mine fell into the water - gone!). They are a pain to reinstall, but Selden does offer a kit with weak instructions.
Apparently a second cause of poor performence is a loose forestay. If the forestay is sagging, the sail will not furl or unfurl properly. Check the tension on your backstays. Hope this helps.

 

[Ken13559]

Ken K, if there is missing bearing balls in the furler assembly, that could be the problem. Loose forestay is also a problem.

 

[KenK13623]

Thanks guys, my gut feeling is that is has to do with the bearings and/or lube. I have a read a couple of posts on other sites that have you spraying WD40 or some type of cleaner on the 2 bearings on the lower unit. Spray with water to clean it out good and then relube with Furlex lube. Think I will try that next and lower the foresail and check that bearing as well. With the jib off, i should be able to notice if the bearings seem rough as i spin it around. If that doesnt work then I might try tightening or loosening again. I have votes for a loose forestay and 1 for a tight forestay as the problem

 

[Ken13559]

I can't imagine tight forestay to be a problem 'cos the furlex is secured only at one end. The extrusiion at top is not secure to the stay. You could actually unscrew the locking grub screws of the furlex drum and lift the drum with extrusion along the forestay. Of course all the lower bearings will drop out if you do that.

 

[Wildheart]

My CDI furling was not unfurling all the way without help- I found that there were too many wraps of the furling line on the drum, rubbing on the shroud on the drum and causing drag.

 

[Creola]

My CDI furling was not unfurling all the way without help- I found that there were too many wraps of the furling line on the drum, rubbing on the shroud on the drum and causing drag.

Same here,once I reduced number of turns on drum while sail is furled completely, it worked fine and still does. Another way to check is if your jib sheets are wrapping multiple times around furled headsail, then you may have too much furling line on drum. Lastly, check the thickness of your furling line. Is it the thickness called for in specs for the furler? Too thick and could fill up drum close to full deployment of headsail.

 

[Warren Milberg]

I have a Furlex 200 on my boat and it can be difficult to lube the bottom bearings of the drum. The directions for doing so are in the manual or I can send them to you if need be. Furlex has some sort of cockamamie "prefurl" system that really requires the upper swivel bearings and the two lower sets of bearings to be well lubed, and NOT with WD 40. If lubrication is not the problem, it sounds like you may have a kink or bend in the extrusion.