I know that our H 29.5 winches have not been serviced in a year. Can anyone tell me what, if anything, should be done. They, lewmar 16, 20's, work just fine. Also what about the roller furling up front?
Lewmar's are substantially like my Harkens and dissasemble from the top. If you haven't done it before, you might want to start by obtaining a diagram of the winch before you take it apart so you will more easily put it back together. Place an old towel around the base of the winch to catch any parts that may 'jump' off while you are working. Typically the top ring will unscrew counter clockwise. Carefully lift off the self tailer and drum and set them aside for cleaning. Remove the pawls and springs and clean them in diesel fuel. The roller bearings are held in plastic rings and may be loose. Take them off and clean everything in a shallow pan using diesel fuel. You may not want or need to do any further disasembly. You can continue cleaning the gears and spindle inplace with a tooth brush and diesel fuel, soaking up the mess around the base with paper towels. Use a white lithium winch grease on the parts as you reassemble them.
The best hint that I have seen for cleaning winchs is to take a cardboard box and cut a hole in the bottom just big enough to fit over the winch (no, this is not like putting a paper bag on a wench's head). I then put a couple of pieces of duck tape to hold the box in place on the coaming. Everything that you take off the winch is safely in the box.
The higher the sides of the box the better. And even better if out of the water. By all means get the diagram, perhaps on Web. If not, you have a twin winch to guide you.
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