Winches

[Mike McMahon]

I am wondering if anyone out there has a diagram of how to reassemble the Maxwell winches on my 1985 h31. What kind of grease is used for relubrication after cleaning. Any hints on this project would be appreciated

 

[Laura Bertran]

Maxwell Winches

Mike- I did all four winches last year. I'd never done one before and it went pretty well, so it's not too hard. I used Harken winch grease but any winch grease will work. I seem to recall some small springs that I was advised to lubricate with machine oil rather than grease.  I was careful to lay out every part in the order in which it was removed. Then is was fairly simple to put it back together. I also had a schematic that I found somewhere on the web. I'll see if I can find it. I think there are some Maxwell winch manuals floating around and maybe someone can post it.Good luck.Laura Bertran1985 H31, Rising Tide

 

[Paul Akers]

Winch Hint:

As Laura said, she laid out the pieces in the sequence that they were removed. This aided reassembly. But an important thing, also, is not to drop any of the parts overboard. As silly as it may seem, get a large box, such as a beer case box and cut a hole in it that can fit over the winch. If you drop anything, it will drop in the box and not bounce overboard. Also, lay out plenty of newspaper. The parts will be greasy and you'll need a place to put them that won't stain the gelcoat.

 

[John]

Pay attention to the ratchets

when you take the winch apart. There are two sets of bronze gears that have a one way ratchet and 4 small springs. One set is on the main shaft and the other set is on one of the side shafts that provide the second speed.The bronze ratchets gears are not interchangable as one operates clockwise and the other works for the counter clockwise direction. If you mistakenly reverse them you cannot turn the winch in either direction. (Voice of experience on that one)First winch took me a hour to clean and 2 days to reassemble. Half of the first day was spent looking for a spring that dropped through the open hatch and bounced while I was trying to hold it while cleaning off the old grease. While grabbing for the spring, my elbow hit the small tray full of parts and half of them went into the cockpit and half followed the spring into the cabin. And we wonder why sailors have such colorfull language.For the other 3 winches I removed the entire winch as I needed to rebed them anyway. I used a 3" deep plastic tray to lay out each piece. I took a piece off, cleaned it, and put it in the tray in the order I removed it. I also made a note about each piece as I removed it.The small springs were really full of gunk and old grease. finally used a toothpick through the spring lengthwise and cleaned it with a toothbrush and solvent. Pulling, cleaning, lubricating and reinstalling with new polysulfide bedding the three winches took about 4 hours with most of the labor in the pulling and reinstalling the winches.good luck with your efforts, the work sure pays off with longer lasting and smoother operating winches.Fair Winds.

 

[Laura Bertran]

Found the Maxwell Schematics

Mike- Use the link below to get to the HOW Site reference page. You'll see the links there for the winch diagrams. Good luck.http://www.hunterowners.com/ref/index.htm?fno=0