Servicing Winches

[patria]

We have 3 types of Meissner winches on our steel yacht. They are as follows : Meissner 18ST - 15, 30ST and 25ST-44. I would be grateful for information on these winches, quality etc. and other users experiences. Also are there agents in the UK (Southampton preferably as i will be travelling there from Dublin to get a Compass refilled soon) or in Ireland. In general advice on servicing winches would also be good. One of the winches will only operate at one speed due to a fault.

Patria

 

[dickh]

I'm not familiar with Meissner(Dutch?) winches but they all normally dismantle easily. Either a screw in the central hole, a circlip or other simple method. Lift off the drum carefully, springs and pawls may fly off, examine and you will probably find a broken pawl spring, hardened grease and general dirt and crud. clean carefully with paraffin and reassemble with winch grease(Lewmar grease is easily available). Pawls and springs seem to be universal between makes, but check.
Just found their website - http://www.meissner-winches.com/

 

[shamrock]

Servicing tip (born of experience). If you are servicing them in-situ, with the boat either on the hard or in the water, use a dust sheet or similar to cover the deck area around the winch, then out to the toe-rail and up to the first guardrail.

That way, when (not if) you drop one of those fiddly little springs / clips / pawls / nuts etc. they will not bounce as much as they do on steel or teak, and are less likely to find their way over the side.

When we serviced 4 big Barlow winches, we went so far as to remove the whole winch from it's base and take away to our workshop to strip them down and re-assemble in better conditions. However, they hadn't been serviced for years and needed a lot of attention, and you then have the terror of passing £4k worth of winches across the small gap between boat and pontoon.

 

[Evadne]

Another tip, especially when servicing afloat, is when first lifting the drum off to put a dust sheet over both the winch and your head, so that when the "Jesus!" springs fly off, they don't leave the boat.

 

[winchservicing]

I have tried to get hold of meissner several times. They give a phone number which is an answer phone which they don't bother listening to as no-one has ever got back to me! If you do manage to get hold of anyone please let me know. I service winches for a living and would love to purchase some meissner spares.

As for your winch. If it's not working in one direction, it is likely to be the pawl spring broken or sticky or a broken pawls-Normally its the spring.
On 2 speed winches the winch will not hold the load. However, some winches (mostly single speed) have a back check on the drum which prevent this.

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 for some time, 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 replacing the gears can cost £100's if you can get them! That's why you shoud service them every year.

Any problems contact me cliff@winchservicing.com

 

[winchservicing]

Had a result on the Meissner winches.

It turns out that an ex-Lewmar Mid Europe colleague now works for them. So I can now get hold of Meissner spares.
Let me know what you need!

Hope it's ok to post this?

 

[patria]

I am new to servicing winches but am handy are there winch servicing bible type books people could recommend to get me started??