lewmar winches

[Ross]

I was helping a friend today clean and lubricate the Lewmar 40 two speed winches that came with his new old boat. I was first off astonished to find that the bases were open. Then when I had taken one apart we found the ring gear fouled with a hard substance that we finally determined to be a bedding compound of a putty type. My friend spent considerable time digging this crud out and cleaning away the years of other neglect. We found short stainless steel wires from a wire brush imbedded in the dirt filled grease. They cleaned up perfectly but I couldn't/can't understand why they were mounted without a gasket.

 

[Les]

Not sure exactly what you mean by the base being open. I've been cleaning Lewmar winches for some years and you want the bottom of the winch to drain water. The only bedding compound I use is on the bolts through the backing plate.

I once used too much bedding compound and it pushed the gears out of alignment and I had to re-clean it.

Did you use a box over the winch? Good way not to lose parts, especially those damn little springs. They hop around like fleas.

Good luck.

 

[Ross]

These were done on the bench at home. There is no way that putty could cause those spur gears to become misaligned. The putty just fouled everything and hardened. It had to be scraped out literally like a dentist would clean teeth.