Lewmar winches no longer self tail

[Modulation]

They're an earlier type than the current models - about 20+ years old and were self tailing but over the last couple of years the sheets just won't stay in the jaws. Tried to buy new jaws from Lewmar but they don't manufacture them for this model any more.
Anyone got in idea on how to deal with the problem? Lewmar helpfully suggested machining 1mm from the meeting surfaces of the upper and lower parts of the jaws thus reducing the space between. Anyone done that and found it works?
I thought also of increasing sheet diameter or putting shims between the meeting surfaces, both of which would mean the sheet is gripped by a different bit of the jaw gripping ribs.
But I'd like to know if there is a solution which worked.

 

[Boo2]

I thought also of increasing sheet diameter or putting shims between the meeting surfaces, both of which would mean the sheet is gripped by a different bit of the jaw gripping ribs.
But I'd like to know if there is a solution which worked.

Increasing the sheet size is the easiest to test so why not try that ? I haven't seen the winches so can't say, but there would be no reasonable way of shimming any of my Lewmar ST winches...

Boo2

 

[ostell]

Internal to my winch are coloured plastic spacers. There are two different colour spacers in the so I presume swapping them over will change the rope handling capacity. Perhaps you can "fiddle" with these spacers to see if they can change anything.

 

[peterb]

One of the problems with self-tailing winches is that people insist on using them as traditional winches. With a trad winch you might only put on two or three turns, just enough to reduce the load on your hand down to an acceptable level. But an ST winches is intended to be fully loaded with turns, so that the load on the jaws is minimised. If you only use two or three turns then the jaw loads go up and the jaws start to wear.

 

[Blueboatman]

Actually there are third party 'acetal' jaws available-at quite a high price i'm afraid- for the ST43s and ST46s.

There are at least two guys doing the rounds of the South Coast boatjumbles who do have stock of the Lewmar jaws for the smaller models, cos I refurb'd my spinnaker ST30s quite cost effectively. Both guys claim to be ex Lewmar, have a poke around t'internet for their sites.

One other reason for considering replacement parts is that the original black jaws are subject to UV degradation and visibly turn grey.

For this reason I would be wary of using larger diameter sheets because they have indeed been known to burst, or so I have been told.

Sorry to be a bit of a doom merchant but informed is better than ignorant, er innit

 

[sailinglegend420]

We had the same problem and just changed the badly worn sheets!