What to look for in a malfunctioning winch

[jdratlif]

I have an O'day 25 with two barient 10p winches. One of them is not working properly. I am going to take the non-working winch apart to look for the problem. I have found the exploded assembly views of the winch and the instructions for disassembling the winch. My question is what should I be looking for that could cause the problem I am having? The problem is below.

With the winch handle in the winch. When you turn the winch handle in the direction to turn the drum, only the inner part of the winch spins and the drum stays stationary. When you try and turn the winch handle in the opposite direction the winch is frozen and will not allow you to turn the handle.

What should I be looking for?

Thanks

 

[Calif. Ted]

The pawls are the cause of most winch failures, springs break most often and then pawls don't engage.

 

[Warren Milberg]

These are pretty simple winches and so finding the problem should not be difficult -- if you can get the drum off. I had these same winches on my old C&C and had a similar problem. As noted by Ted, the problem is probably broken pawl springs. In my case, the tiny pieces of broken spring wedged the drum to the race and made getting the drum off very hard. In the end, I had to place some pieces of plywood around the base of the winch and gently pry the drum up using a huge screwdriver as a pry bar and going all around the base as I pried. With the drum off, inspect the innards for small spring pieces. BTW, since I did not have Barient springs to replace the broken ones with, I use Lewmar springs and they worked fine. While the winch is apart, clean the race, spline and inside of the drum with either mineral spirits or diesel fuel. Use some good quality winch lube and reassemble. Good luck with this...

 

[DannyS]

I went through almost all of my winches last spring and found the springs a pawls to be fine but the winches had probably not been serviced in years. My issue was that the grease was so old that it got sticky and stuck the pawls open so the winch would not engage. Once cleaned and re-greased, everything worked like a champ. A great trick I learned either here or in Good Old Boat Magazine... take a shoe box and cut a round hole in the bottom exactly the diameter of the winch. Slip the box over the winch before you take the drum off. If any little parts want to jump out, they'll drop in the box and not overboard.

 

[Maddog]

More often than not, the dishes aren't done and the laundry needs folding.

Oh, wait..........................never mind.

 

[Joe]

Just don't put grease on the pawls and pawl springs.... oil only.

 

[Cliff E]

had to clean old grease off of my pawls, and it works great now, I think po used to much grease and worked its way to the pawls.

 

[Joe]

had to clean old grease off of my pawls, and it works great now, I think po used to much grease and worked its way to the pawls.

That's cool... those old barient and barlow winches were well made... lots of bronze... and will last indefinitely with a little maintenance. There are replacement parts available from an Aussie company named ACCO. But I was able to find replacement springs and pawls at Westmarine.