Gibbs RA Winches partial success on servicing.

[Praxinoscope]

Further to my thread on Gibbs RA winches last year, I can now report a partial uccess in servicing these seemingly rather rare winches. I have gone as far as possible without removing them from the boat, so haven't managed to access the lowest gear wheels, as these last items an only be accessed by removing the winches entirely , and as usual on boats this is not an easy option.
Thanks to advice from Neil-S concerning the S/S rod tat goes through the central column and which prevents disassembly I persevered with 'drifting' this rod out by tapping it out with a parallel drift and medium size ball pein hammer.
I have taken photo's of the various stages of disassembly so if anyone else needs to see what they will find if they want to service this model winch I will download them.
They are not the simplest winches to service, and were obviously complex and expensive to manufacture, which may explain why there don't seem to be many of them around.
What is interesting however is that these winches are now over 40 years old, from the state of them when I got them apart, I don't think they hadn't been serviced possibly since new, just grease stuffed in now and again, but there is virtually now sign of wear so quality of construction was good, but it does raise the question as to why a manufacturer would make an item that needs regular servicing so difficult to service.
If anyone has these winches and would like a set of images of the various components and some notes on the difficulty of stripping them down please ask.

 

[ghostlymoron]

I published a description of servicing my Gibb ST 25s some years ago which I hear was useful to several forum users. I did them soon after acquiring my boat and had to remove them to do a complete service. Removing them was a real faff (finger tip stuff) but I realized that it was possible to access the bolts by removing the cockpit cave lockers - a quick job - so replacing them was much easier.
I too found them full of hardened grease which had probably been there since new. Servicing was a satisfying job and well worth the effort.

 

[Praxinoscope]

I published a description of servicing my Gibb ST 25s some years ago which I hear was useful to several forum users. I did them soon after acquiring my boat and had to remove them to do a complete service. Removing them was a real faff (finger tip stuff) but I realized that it was possible to access the bolts by removing the cockpit cave lockers - a quick job - so replacing them was much easier.
I too found them full of hardened grease which had probably been there since new. Servicing was a satisfying job and well worth the effort.

With my advancing years I find that hours of being stuck in the cockpit locker to access the nuts holding the winches on is not an overly attractive idea, and I think I will only attempt this if it gets to the point that the present Gibb winches become unserviceable.
Fortunately a liberal application of Jizer has cleaned off the lower pris which can't be accessed without removing the winches from the boat, everything else has been stripped, cleaned and re-lubrictated,
Ghostlymoron, you are quite right it's rather satisfying to return them to a satisfactory standard, the pawls clicks are 'music to my ears'.

 

[neil_s]

Well done! Having a go at mine, tomorrow.

 

[ianat182]

If it helps- I used to buy Gibb stuff from the Chandlery Barge- at Bursledon. If memory serves they used to have a stock of Gibb Winch parts and winches including the springs and pawls - they may still do if you check with them'

ianat182

 

[ghostlymoron]

If it helps- I used to buy Gibb stuff from the Chandlery Barge- at Bursledon. If memory serves they used to have a stock of Gibb Winch parts and winches including the springs and pawls - they may still do if you check with them'

ianat182

The chandlery barge sounds like a brilliant place for a rummage. The bits on my Gibb winches that I couldn't replace were the red plastic bushes which were a bit manky - would they have any of those at Bursledon?