Lewmar self-tailers

tugboat

tugboat

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Last year I purchased a boat which came well equipped with Lewmar STs - a mixture of 40s, 30s and 16s. Prior to the delivery trip I serviced the primaries and secondaries (i.e. not the coachroof jobbies) and reassembled with the correct lubricant. As the months have passed, the winches I serviced have become increasingly stiff, whereas the ones I left alone are as before. The stiffness has been traced to the self-tailing crown assemblies, the stripper rings are now very tight on the top crowns and creating a lot of friction. When I did the service, I washed everything in paraffin (to degrease) and I'm now thinking I shouldn't have dunked the plastic bits. If I made a mistake, I'm keen to avoid doing it again. I downloaded the bumf from the Lewmar website prior to service (very little detail) and I've twice emailed them to ask for advice, but they haven't deigned to reply. I thus throw myself upon the mercy of all you learned folks. Has the paraffin made the plastic expand or contract in some way? Do I need to replace just the stripper rings or the whole top crown assembly on each winch? I feel they are too tight to be lubed. Did I make a cockup using paraffin, should I have just washed in clean water? This is my first experience with 'proper' winches, only had single speeds before. All advice gratefully received. (PS. Aren't those pawl springs little buggers?) /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
I have had exactly the same problem in the past. I found that the when you have got all the bits stripped out of the winch and after laying them aside for cleaning , concentrate on on the body bolted to the boat which must be scupulously clean. If, when you reassemble, the two bronze bits at the top do not slide in easily then the body has not been cleaned and forcing them in stiffens the whole thing up - look particularly at the very bottom where salt and gunge accumulate, this makes the components ride up and the clearances are insufficient. Sorry if I've got the names of the bits wrong but I don't have the manual at hand and its some time since I stripped them. Lewmar grease is fine by the way apart from its cost of course which is another yachtsmans rip-off!
 
sailorman and mikebees, in my post I explained the problem is in the self-tailer. The main drum is fine, free and the grease is OK. The only problem is in the plastic bit at the top. If you re-read my original post I think I explained it clearly. Thanks.
 
Yes, know exactly what you mean...

Yes, know exactly what you mean. The same thing happened on my Lewmar self-tailers. As I recall, the little plastic stripper arm is held on by a ring of plastic, and it's this ring which gets tighter somehow and creates friction. If you examine the construction, this ring sits in a groove or grooves and so isn't reliant on being a complete ring in order to stay in place. What I did therefore was to cut through it with a fine hacksaw, at the opposite side to the stripper arm. Bingo! No friction.
 
Re: Yes, know exactly what you mean...

Hey, thanks for that. Been out to the shed, cut the stripper ring, no more friction. Cracking good wheeze, Gromit! Good old forumites! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
I use synthetic teflon based greese (hazy-clear with a consistency similar to silicone greese.). Has worked fine for 3 years (without redoing) and none of the gunging up you get with 'ordinary' greese. I think it was about £4 for 250ml pot which should last a good few years.

Vic
 
Some years ago we had a talk from a Lewmar engineer and the question of the grease came up.
He reckoned that the grease is exceedingly high pressure grease that hardly anybody makes, hence the price. I've no reason to disbelieve him but I find it hard to believe that engines and hydraulics don't have higher pressure operating parameters than a hand operated winch?
 
Lewmar 40ST

I have a Lewmar 40ST which "slips" when under load. I will soon have the pleasure of taking it apart (never done it before) and am wondering whether it is likely to be a simple clean & lubricate job, or whether I might need to replace some parts. I have "Nigel Calder's Bible" to help, but would appreciate some views.
 
"plastic" is a hydro-carbon and so is paraffin
They seem to have an affinity for each other.
I pumped one diesel tank empty with a plastic pump - or rather a pump with a plastic plunger, came back the next day to empty the 2nd tank and the pump had jammed solid.
The plunger had expanded to a degree that meant chucking the whole pump.

Never clean 'plastic' with any hydrocarbon seems to be the answer that you might be looking for.

I like PVB's solution - very neat.....
 
Re: Lewmar 40ST

If the winch is slipping/not holding the load. It will be the sprung pawls not engaging with the ratchet gear. Either the pawl springs have broken or the pawls-more likely to be the spring.
Check the pawls fit in the pawl pockets when fitting new pawls or springs. They are designed to work in pairs to give even loading. If one has not been working, the other takes all the load and the pawl pocket becomes oversize. If this has happened it’s a new pawl gear I’m afraid-if still available.
Always fit new pawl springs when servicing. It's not worth not fitting them they cost pence to replace but the gears cost £'s if you can get them.
Any problems contact me. cliff@winchservicing.com
(I spent 15 years at Lewmar as an engineer).
 
The crowns are glass reinforced and do adsorb moisture to a degree. You shouldn’t need to use any thing to clean the crowns or to lubricate them. Just a wipe with a clean wet rag to clean out the salt deposits.

Although a quick fix-I wouldn’t recommend cutting the stripper ring. The jaws expand when the rope is fed in and the ring can displace. If this happened the rope will go under the arm and could break the centre stem (the main body) where the 2 feeder arm location collets fit in the slots at the top. This is very expensive to replace. The crowns and stripper rings are cheap to replace!

I worked at Lewmar for 15 years-now self employed servicing Winches and Anchor winches as no-one else seems to be doing it!

Any problems contact me. cliff@winchservicing.com
 
In my original post, I said that I hadn't been able to get any help from Lewmar re my winch probs. Just to set the record straight - I had email and phone call from Rich Chowns at Lewmar a couple of days ago, and he determined that some parts of my winches were from a small faulty batch. He promised to send me some replacements which arrived with me today and they have transformed the operation of my winches. Lewmar supplied these parts to me free, and I'd like to let forumites know that I've had really super back-up from them. Considering I didn't buy the winches myself, but inherited them with my boat, I reckon that's support par excellence. I'm a happy chappy! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
One of our ST48's had the same problem when brand new (back in 1996) - to the extent that it was very difficult to rotate the winch in reverse by hand on the drum. One other winch of a different size had the problem to a much lesser extent. I actually left it for a couple of years seeing if it would correct itself with wear as the sheet loads still easily rotated it when easing them, but no luck with that cop out approach.

The solution I used was to lightly sand the inside of the ring until it was a looser fit on the spigot it sits around (until I did that it was almost impossible to slide it around by hand and was somewhat difficult to get apart). Possibly protects the integrity of the ring better than cutting on the side away from the arm.

On the grease bit, the few people I have asked, including boatbuilders, just use ordinary lithium based HP grease and I do the same. I suspect that it is much cheaper than the Lewmar stuff, which I have never bought.

John
 
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