Barton Sheet Winch

[bumblefish]

I installed two of these last summer to handle the cruising chute and now one spins freely but the other is very sticky. Does anyone have any experience of the best stuff to lubricate them with as they are supposed to be self-lubricating and maintenance free!

 

[VicMallows]

It's difficult to know exactly which Barton you have, but as they are for spinnaker I guess they are quite small. I have one where the drum is about 2.5in and is released by pressing down inside handle hole untill a clip latches. The drum 'bearing ' is just the drum itself against the plastic base.

I use a thin smear of the same synthetic ('with teflon') grease as I use on the main winches. However, when it was a couple of years old it did become extremely stiff. Barton said they had had a 'manufacturing problem' and supplied a replacement plastic base. In fact I believe they had simply increased the clearance tollerance. Mind you all that was over 15 yrs ago!

Suggest if yours is similar and still tight after cleaning, you rub the base part down with sandpaper, starting quite course and ending up as fine as possible. (assuming of course you don't have lathe facillities).

Vic