Removing a Harken Unit 1 Furler from forestay

[Philos63]

I need to replace my standing rigging and have a Harken furler (Unit 1 from 1990). Has anybody removed this model of furling unit from a forestay? Any advice? I have the original instruction manual on how to fit it but could do with some guidance - working backwards through the manual isnt quite that straightforward.
Thanks

 

[Pye_End]

Looks similar to the unit 0, which I am familiar with.
Remove stay from boat.
Remove the 3 screws which hold the torque tube and raise up the foil a bit (slacken the two hex bolts at the top of the tube to release from foil).
Release locking collar (if Norseman or Sta-lok this means screwing downwards).
Unscrew the whole drum assembly from the stay.
Remove Norseman/Sta-Lok fitting if that is what was used.
Remove stay from foil - might be worth mousing.

Re-instating is reverse, but you will probably want to adjust for length when up - are you familiar with how to do this?

 

[Philos63]

Looks similar to the unit 0, which I am familiar with.
Remove stay from boat.
Remove the 3 screws which hold the torque tube and raise up the foil a bit (slacken the two hex bolts at the top of the tube to release from foil).
Release locking collar (if Norseman or Sta-lok this means screwing downwards).
Unscrew the whole drum assembly from the stay.
Remove Norseman/Sta-Lok fitting if that is what was used.
Remove stay from foil - might be worth mousing.

Re-instating is reverse, but you will probably want to adjust for length when up - are you familiar with how to do this?

Hi.
Thanks for that. I've found an old YouTube video -

- which backs up your timely advice. I'm having a new headstay made up with a swaged end and according to the instructions, I need to make sure that the top trim cap as well as all the connector sections, in the correct order, are threaded onto the wire before the bottom terminal is swaged on. Does this sound right to you? Some people advise that a Sta-Lok or Norseman swageless terminal be used as it makes removal of the unit easier in the future. To be honest, I think the next time it will be re-rigged will be someone else's problem! Thanks again for the help.
A

 

[Pye_End]

If you have a swaged bottom terminal at the moment then to release the locking collar you need to screw upwards, but I think this is shown in your linked video.

It may well be that you can slide the original stay (including the swage) through the foil sections, in which case you will be able to make a new one up and slide the new one on complete. Mine is a Norseman so I do not know.

I just want to check - you do not have to (or want to) disassemble the foil itself. The Harken manual seem to be for initial assembly rather than changing the wire.

 

[doug748]

FWIW. I have just done this on a Unit 2, which looks very similar to the above.
I found using a Sta loc very convenient for the bottom. Provided you keep a weather eye on the original stay length there is little to go wrong and it does mean , with only a top swage, you can operate in the boatyard independent of the riggers.

BTW - I was assured that it would be almost impossible to feed the new wire through the foil without a mouse line, in fact is was quite easy.

.

 

[Philos63]

FWIW. I have just done this on a Unit 2, which looks very similar to the above.
I found using a Sta loc very convenient for the bottom. Provided you keep a weather eye on the original stay length there is little to go wrong and it does mean , with only a top swage, you can operate in the boatyard independent of the riggers.

BTW - I was assured that it would be almost impossible to feed the new wire through the foil without a mouse line, in fact is was quite easy.

FWIW. I have just done this on a Unit 2, which looks very similar to the above.
I found using a Sta loc very convenient for the bottom. Provided you keep a weather eye on the original stay length there is little to go wrong and it does mean , with only a top swage, you can operate in the boatyard independent of the riggers.

BTW - I was assured that it would be almost impossible to feed the new wire through the foil without a mouse line, in fact is was quite easy.

.

Thanks for the reply. Having removed the drum and turnbuckle assembly I've managed to get the 1st (i.e. bottom) foil section off - with great difficulty - and it is indeed a swaged stud. My original plan was to undo all the foil sections and remove, leaving the connectors and trim cap on the stay (they don't slide over the terminals) and send the wire off to the rigger to make up new, with trim cap and connectors properly threaded. Howwever, I'm pretty sure the connectors were originally fitted using some form of retaining compund as I'm struggling to seperate the next section - and there is another four or five to go!

I have two options; 1. persevere with trying to get all the foils off in sections, with possible damage occuring in the process, or 2. cut the swage off, withdraw the wire from the foils and have a new one made up with top swaged terminal only, then refit with Sta-Lok bottom terminal. Unless some clever rigger-type person can tell me how to seperate the foils easily, option 2 is looking good.

 

[doug748]

Same dilemma that I faced. The riggers told me to apply heat to the joints with careful use of a blowlamp to break the loctite seal but I still did not fancy it.
I sawed off the bottom swage, withdrew the wire to get a new on made up and used a Sta Loc on the bottom, as you suggest. It all went well and the mast was put back up last week.

Once removed the foil is more robust than you would imagine and can safely be moved around by two people.

.

 

[Philos63]

Same dilemma that I faced. The riggers told me to apply heat to the joints with careful use of a blowlamp to break the loctite seal but I still did not fancy it.
I sawed off the bottom swage, withdrew the wire to get a new on made up and used a Sta Loc on the bottom, as you suggest. It all went well and the mast was put back up last week.

Once removed the foil is more robust than you would imagine and can safely be moved around by two people.

.

Thanks for the reply. Yeah, I think that's the way I'll be going. Having successfully removed only the lower connection, I noted that there is a plastic strip inserted into a part of the connector casting - the manual mentions "wedges" that are used on the connecting part. I would think that excessive heat would easily destroy these. I will have one more attempt, using a combination of gentle heat and sudden cooling to seee if they come apart. If not, out with the hacksaw!

 

[unbusted67]

Hello, Can you tell me which Stalock fitting you guys ordered? I'm looking at Defender and there's a few different options. Do you know what the thread size is for the Harkin drum? 7/16?