Simpson Lawrence steering

[voyager35]

I am hopping to buy a yacht built in the late 1980s that has a Simpson Lawrence steering box/system (it all currently working well)
I believe the company is long extinct but was hoping to find manuals/spares online, but google only seems to come up with windless listings .
Can anyone point me in the right direction
Thanks

 

[Fr J Hackett]

The very fact that it doesn't feature in any google search would lead me to suspect that it has been wrongly categorised and that it is most probably Whitlock for which spares are available through Lewmar.

Any pictures?

 

[voyager35]

The very fact that it doesn't feature in any google search would lead me to suspect that it has been wrongly categorised and that it is most probably Whitlock for which spares are available through Lewmar.

Any pictures?

No not at the moment

 

[RivalRedwing]

Presume you have seen this site
Homepage | Simpson Lawrence Yacht Parts & Spares
even though it is for windlass and loo spares.
The owner is probably best placed to guide you further

 

[Fr J Hackett]

I expect it's for some sort of transfer box at the inside steering position but I think Whitlock did something similar probably found on boats like a Fischer from the same period.

 

[geem]

The very fact that it doesn't feature in any google search would lead me to suspect that it has been wrongly categorised and that it is most probably Whitlock for which spares are available through Lewmar.

Any pictures?

There are not many spares for the 1980s Whitlock/Lewmar steering. Mine is 1980 and there don't seem to be any spares. To be fair, things like bearings and seals are all easy. Teeth on the gearboxes don't wear much but you do get enough wear to give a bit of backlash. Thr gearboxes have shims in them. The idea being to remove shims as the gears wear to reduce the backlash.
On one of my gearboxes, the shaft has worn its splines off.imwill get a new shaft made when I get back to the UK later this year. The splines are the same size as Land Rover Defender steering boxes and the UJs on my steering system are also off the Land Rover Defender. Easily sourced off ebay

 

[Fr J Hackett]

There are not many spares for the 1980s Whitlock/Lewmar steering. Mine is 1980 and there don't seem to be any spares. To be fair, things like bearings and seals are all easy. Teeth on the gearboxes don't wear much but you do get enough wear to give a bit of backlash. Thr gearboxes have shims in them. The idea being to remove shims as the gears wear to reduce the backlash.
On one of my gearboxes, the shaft has worn its splines off.imwill get a new shaft made when I get back to the UK later this year. The splines are the same size as Land Rover Defender steering boxes and the UJs on my steering system are also off the Land Rover Defender. Easily sourced off ebay

I replaced a Pedestal complete with bevel gear and transfers shaft and the Lewmar replacement was identical in all respects I wouldn't have thought the current Lewmar gear boxes were different to the original Whitlock ones. Cliff Minshull (sp) used to run a spares and service business I think he now has an agency for Lewmar or something like that. A search of the forum should pull up his details and phone number. He was the go to man.

 

[geem]

I replaced a Pedestal complete with bevel gear and transfers shaft and the Lewmar replacement was identical in all respects I wouldn't have thought the current Lewmar gear boxes were different to the original Whitlock ones. Cliff Minshull (sp) used to run a spares and service business I think he now has an agency for Lewmar or something like that. A search of the forum should pull up his details and phone number. He was the go to man.

Yep, I spoke to Cliff. He didn't have spares for my pedestal. Once I had it stripped down, there isn't much I can't get sorted. Another job when back in the UK is to have to main shaft that the wheel sits on machined. The keyway is worn. Machining out the shaft and gear for the next size key shouldn't be too hard to sort. As a temporary fix i epoxied in a new key. It's good for now but at 44 year old, things need a little TLC.
We are lucky that close to home we have numerous small engineering shops that can do machining at reasonable costs