Servicing a Gibb winch - Is it worth it?

conks01

conks01

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Hi.

I've recently acquired a Westerly Pageant which has the original Gibb winches.

The port side is stiff to say the least and having had a quick look under tonight it seems to have a build up of 40 years of god only knows.

It still works so I'm conscious that if it's not broken don't try and fix it scenario however I was wondering if there's a simple way to lubricate without taking the whole winch apart. What is the best lubricant to use etc.

Thanks
 
Take it apart, wash it in white spirit or some other solvent, lubricate it, put it back together. Then see if it's easier to use. If not, consider replacement.
 
It's worth servicing a winch regularly. Racers will do it a number of times a season as they're far too lazy to break their backs overcoming the resistance of unmaintained kit.

If it really is clogged up with gunk a good trick is to take it apart, liberally dose it with 3-in-1 oil or even WD40, reassemble, go sailing, then come back in and take it apart again and clean and service it properly. With use the oil soaks into the old grease. Any reasonable solvent will do to clean it. Diesel is as cheap as most.

Clean everything thoroughly. Very lightly smear with grease (you can get the winch manufacturer's grease but Li grease is OK). The important thing is to not put on too much. Oil the pawls and reassemble.
 
conks01 said:
The port side is stiff to say the least and having had a quick look under tonight it seems to have a build up of 40 years of god only knows.

It still works so I'm conscious that if it's not broken don't try and fix it scenario however I was wondering if there's a simple way to lubricate without taking the whole winch apart.
Click to expand...

No. You have to take them apart, but they are easy to service. If yours are the under-lever type (I love 'em) then there should be a black plastic plug in the top. If it's there, remove it, look down the hoctagonal 'ole (which takes a standard handle) and you should see a screw head. Undo it and very carefully remove it, unless you have a good supply of 1/4" BSW countersunk head machine screws around. Been there, done that, got the pathetic little 'plop' in the Firth of Clyde.

Once that's out, the barrel just twists off. Easier said than done, sometimes, but a kettle full of boiling water over the whole thing can help. I then used to use a rubber strap wrench - like this

1270665.jpg


- to turn it round and round while pulling upwards as well. It will slowly undo itself and eventually pop off the spindle. Then, as others have said, you clean it all up, lightly lubricate everything (grease on the shaft, oil on the springs) and reassemble. Scotchbrite -

51Cel87ogRL._SX425_.jpg


- is very useful for cleaning up the spindle and the inside bearing on the drum. If it doesn't spin freely on trial reassembly without grease, keep on cleaning!

The only bits which are hard to get are pawls and springs, but they last a long time and I believe there are Harken ones which fit.
 
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Clean thoroughly in diesel as already suggested and reassemble using the bare minimum of light grease. Too much will collect traffic film, dust, etc until the whole mess looks like a lump of tarmac.
If, after cleaning, the drum still feels stiff it could well be that the nylon bush has expanded because of 'salt' attacking the alloy and pushing the nylon inwards. This is what I found when I had a Centaur. Five minutes on the lathe and a light skim of the bore and the winch was as good as new.
Mine were the bottom acting type with a captive lever. When I replaced them after a special offer on Antal self-tailing, many years ago, the old winches were used to replace those on the mast; no more risk of handles going walkabout! ;) Close to twenty years down the line I can still see them in use by the present (third) owner of my old boat.
So, YES, old GIBB winches are definitely worth servicing!
 
I serviced the Gibb winches on my Mirage which I don't think had ever been done before. Two were ST25s the other 5 were small single speed jobbies but with removable handles. It was a very satisfying job and made a tremendous difference. Parts of the ST25s can only be reached by removing the complete winch which was a bit of a pain.
There are some plastic (nylon?) bushes which almost beyond re use. If yours are worse, it would be worth getting someone with a lathe to turn you some new ones out of suitable plastic - acetal?
The other problem area is pawls if these are worn but I think that Lewmar ones might fit.
But it's deffo worth doing.
 
I think it is essential that you dismantle the winches and become familiar with servicing them. I have been known to lift off the barrel of my jib sheet winches between short tacks while sailing. A quick squirt of WD 40 frees things like pauls up at least temporarily. As said just be careful you don't lose any small parts overboard. My experience with my original ali barrelled winches was that the barrel wore on the inside where the roller bearings contact to the point where the barrel had free play to cant slightly with rope load. This caused pauls to fail to catch so winch became ineffective. I replaced both sheet winches. However that was after about 20 years of hard work with lots of racing and short tacking. The little boat gets flogged at least every weekend fro half of each year. I use any old grease but clean them often. olewill
 
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