My SL Sprint Experience
Lee,
You might be interested in my Simpson Lawrence Sprint experience.
The same seal as yours failed so I removed the windlass. The gearbox looked corroded on the outside so I took it off and drained it. The oil came out untainted by water but it contained a fine tilth of brass particles where the worm had been shaving layers off the brass wormwheel.
Next I looked at the motor brushes and these had all but disappeared, yet the windlass could not have run for more than an hour in total - being only about 15 seconds per anchoring and weighing again. I needed a new plate with 4 brushes. The motor is of French make by Leroy Somer (US agents exist.)
Okay so now on to the main ball bearing directly under this seal. The photo shows it all. Rusted to death and the outer race broke into pieces as I gently tapped it out of its housing. Not made of stainless? Well though stainless bearings were not available at least rustless ones were.
So why did the seal above this bearing fail. Well it was a FACE type and relied on the collar above to press gently down on it. This it did not do reliably because there was end float in the shaft assembly. Accordingly I replaced it with a lip seal that runs on the shaft itself. Easily obtained from the supplier who also sold me a 'rustless' ball race.
On replacing the windlass I realised that, mounted in the anchor locker, waves could keep it constantly doused with seawater and worst of all the design of the windlass baseplate is such that it actually directs water into the well that the seal sits in and there is no proper drainage.
A sure recipe for disaster.
What I did when rebuilding the thing was to squirt silicone rubber in a ring round the seal on to the base plate and then apply grease to the underside of the gypsy and bolt it down. The idea being to compress the silicone rubber until it set but not have it stick to the gypsy. Then I took the gypsy off again and noted a horseshoe seal facing forwards.
I left the grease in place and haven't looked at it since.
You can see the black top of the new lip shaft seal in the photo.
Just get or make a short piece of wooden dowel of the correct diameter to use as a drift. Make sure the bottom face is square with the length and put it on top of the seal and gently tap it in using a decent sized hammer, also making sure you keep the drift vertical.
All that was in 2003 and I have not revisited it since - but it still works just fine.
Good luck with yours - and my condolences!
