Facnor SD165 Upper Swivel Bearings

[Purds]

Apologies all for resurrecting this old thread , have recently stripped by R250 , now looking to put it back together ( in the conventional manner with Steel bearings ) and am pondering on what grease to use .

Any assistance gratefully received ...

Cheers

Purds

 

[Pferdi]

Hi,

I also try to refurbish my Facnor furler and made a separate thread as mine is a SD180. Thank you for the information so far. Please let me know if you did track down a ball bearing source for your SD165 as that might give me an idea on how to get hold of a SD180 one.
Thank you
Pferdi

 

[Purds]

Hi Pferdi

I got mine from "simplybearings.co.uk" but i think also available on Ebay

The bearings appear to be a whole piece , inner race , outer race and balls all included . ( dont know if you were looking to just replace the balls ...)

You will probably see the bearing type stamped on the outer race - ( for example IIRC the R250 uses "16008" bearings )

Shout if you need any more help ...

Cheers

Purds

 

[Beneteau381]

Thanks to all who have replied - some excellent help, suggestions and tips. I've also had some good support from Euospars who stock almost all the spare parts for the Facnor SD gear. I'm about to start trying to dismantle the furler and get the drum and swivel back to the house and then I'll try splitting some of the foil sections to see what condition the internal bearing onto the forestay are in.

I'm going to replace the forestay this winter, but annoyingly the current forestay has an eye swaged onto each end so I'll need to completely strip down the whole foil to get the old stay out, or cut the stay and thread the new stay through the foil assembly. Does anyone know what diameter the foil bearings' internal hole is so that I can ensure I get a terminal that will fit through the bearings when I thread the new stay through the foil?

I want the new forestay to not have fixed eyes on each and and am considering changing the lower eye for a turnbackle setup. Anyone else converted in this manner and is there enough space at the bottom of the drum to cope with the two sides of the turnbuckle, toggle and wire terminal? My drum is mounted on link plates that are about 20cm long. 8mm rigging.

Thanks.

The bearings are split so that the eye doesnt have to go through them. The lengths are held together by several counter sunk screws. Make damn sure that you have the correct philips or posidrive screwdriver to undo them. If you burr the heads you are in to drilling out!I cant remember which one it is. I did an article for pbo a while back when I did mine. PM an email address and Ill see if I can fund the article and email it to you.
Hah, just spotted the date! If anyone else needs the data?

 

[ithet]

I have Facnor C30 halyard swivel on Beneteau 331. Furling was a bit sticky last year so I thought I would investigate while sail was down. Looking down into the swivel in situ I can clearly see the ball bearings and no grease. That was not what I expected after reading this thread as I thought there should be a seal on top. Could it have been removed/lost? I know that the gear must have be dissembled as the rigging was replaced a few years ago (by prior owner) .

The bearings are split so that the eye doesnt have to go through them. The lengths are held together by several counter sunk screws. Make damn sure that you have the correct philips or posidrive screwdriver to undo them. If you burr the heads you are in to drilling out!I cant remember which one it is. I did an article for pbo a while back when I did mine. PM an email address and Ill see if I can fund the article and email it to you.
Hah, just spotted the date! If anyone else needs the data?

Beneteau381, I would be very interested in this.

 

[Beneteau381]

I have Facnor C30 halyard swivel on Beneteau 331. Furling was a bit sticky last year so I thought I would investigate while sail was down. Looking down into the swivel in situ I can clearly see the ball bearings and no grease. That was not what I expected after reading this thread as I thought there should be a seal on top. Could it have been removed/lost? I know that the gear must have be dissembled as the rigging was replaced a few years ago (by prior owner) .



Beneteau381, I would be very interested in this.

pm your email address

 

[Beneteau381]

I have Facnor C30 halyard swivel on Beneteau 331. Furling was a bit sticky last year so I thought I would investigate while sail was down. Looking down into the swivel in situ I can clearly see the ball bearings and no grease. That was not what I expected after reading this thread as I thought there should be a seal on top. Could it have been removed/lost? I know that the gear must have be dissembled as the rigging was replaced a few years ago (by prior owner) .



Beneteau381, I would be very interested in this.

The old top swivel doesnt have seals, You can look down it and see the balls etc

 

[Mickyfinn]

Well, I'm halfway through.... got the upper swivel home and opened it up using the help earlier in this thread. I think that the swivel has been jamming because the circlips that hold the bearings into the body are made of steel, which had corroded. THe clips were still intact, but the rust had got into the bearings and was jamming it all up. I've replaced the clips with stainless ones (Tef Gel'd into the alloy housing) and replaced the balls in the bearings with delrin plastic ones. What a difference it has all made. I can now hold one half of the swivel and spin the other part and it will keep spinning for ages! Hopefully this will now be OK under load.

http://i553.photobucket.com/albums/jj388/dje67/IMG_1021_zpsfe4f110e.jpg

I've now started on the drum. It is a little more complicated and although I bought some decent circlip pliers, they are too bulky to fit into the drum to remove the lower circlips, so I'll need to re-order some more pliers...! In my drum, the upper seal had failed, allowing water into the bearing. Over time this turned the grease into a water-laden gunge that was leaking out the (failed) lower seal.

Having seen the difference in the upper swivel with delrin bearings, it has got me thinking about the design of the lower drum. I'm wondering about why the lower drum is grease-filled and why it shouldn't just be made up like the modified swivel. I'll fit new seals to prevent water ingress then replace all the balls in the stainless steel bearings with delrin balls. These are self-lubricating and if I make the circlips stainless (using Tef Gel again) I'm thinking that the drum will work just as well dry, with the delrin balls and stainless clips & bearing races. The only issue I can see is that if the upper seal did fail again, then there's no protection on the alloy.

So is there any reason why I should fill the drum up with grease and, if I do, what kind of grease should I use for delrin balls?

I know its a long time since you posted the above, but I'm about to "deep service" my Facnor SD180 drum. I am wondering if you did indeed replace the SS balls with Delrin, and how it faired in life afterwards ! How did the upper swivel Delrin bearings work out? My top unit is a C38 swivel, if yours is the same, what size Delrin balls did you use?

Any info welcome.

Mike , Helensburgh.

 

[dje67]

I know its a long time since you posted the above, but I'm about to "deep service" my Facnor SD180 drum. I am wondering if you did indeed replace the SS balls with Delrin, and how it faired in life afterwards ! How did the upper swivel Delrin bearings work out? My top unit is a C38 swivel, if yours is the same, what size Delrin balls did you use?

Any info welcome.

Mike , Helensburgh.

I did use delrin on the upper swivel. After the overhaul, the swivel was significantly smoother and easier to furl. That continues to this day and all I’ve done in the interim wrt maintenance is to give it a few flushes with fresh water. No regrets about changing, but couldn’t say whether the overhauled swivel, if I’d used stainless, would be as good!

bottom drum went back together with the original stainless balls packed with grease (think it was ACF 50 Corrosion Block I used). The drum has also been perfect since then.

 

[Mickyfinn]

I did use delrin on the upper swivel. After the overhaul, the swivel was significantly smoother and easier to furl. That continues to this day and all I’ve done in the interim wrt maintenance is to give it a few flushes with fresh water. No regrets about changing, but couldn’t say whether the overhauled swivel, if I’d used stainless, would be as good!

bottom drum went back together with the original stainless balls packed with grease (think it was ACF 50 Corrosion Block I used). The drum has also been perfect since then.

Thanks for that. I can’t understand (as with others) why the lower unit is grease packed and the upper is open and dry. Perhaps the dowsing in salt water if the lower unit is the issue, assuming the upper swivel to be above the salt water ?

 

[HenrikN]

Just found this thread, but even it's a bit old it seems to address some of my concerns.
Got a "new" boat last year which has a RX 200 from 2009 furler mounted. I recently unstepped the mast just to check if everything is ok. When I came to check the furler I noticed that the swivel does not run as smooth as my previous Harken, nor does the drum. I contacted the seller and he told me that he used to lube the swivel each year with PFTE spray. It seems that the swivel bearings are running on Torlon balls like the Harken, but it's not spinning like Harken - don't know if it should? Haven't tried to lube it yet. I was also told that once there is tension between the drum and swivel it should run w/o problems.

Now the drum runs smooth but with some resistance. It feels like bearings with a lot of grease inside when I turn it by hand, but it can definitely not spin like Harken. Should it be like that?
I cant notice any grease coming from it.

 

[jwilson]

Just found this thread, but even it's a bit old it seems to address some of my concerns.
Got a "new" boat last year which has a RX 200 from 2009 furler mounted. I recently unstepped the mast just to check if everything is ok. When I came to check the furler I noticed that the swivel does not run as smooth as my previous Harken, nor does the drum. I contacted the seller and he told me that he used to lube the swivel each year with PFTE spray. It seems that the swivel bearings are running on Torlon balls like the Harken, but it's not spinning like Harken - don't know if it should? Haven't tried to lube it yet. I was also told that once there is tension between the drum and swivel it should run w/o problems.

Now the drum runs smooth but with some resistance. It feels like bearings with a lot of grease inside when I turn it by hand, but it can definitely not spin like Harken. Should it be like that?
I cant notice any grease coming from it.

The newer Facnor swivels are quite stiff (but smooth) to turn by hand when brand new out of the box. The old ones "spun". Yours if on a 2009 boat may have had the originals already replaced. I am not a fan of Facnor, having owned one and spent a lot on replacement parts - three swivels, two drums. Junked the whole system 18 months ago.