Tufnol/Tuphnol Winch Maintenance

[ducked]

Any special considerations?

In particular, I'm wondering if the apparently generally recommended practice of soaking everything in organic solvent (for example, white spirit, kerosene, or diesel) to clean and degrease might damage the material

I assume it should be OK to do this to the removed gears, etc as long as it doesn;t get on the tufnol

 

[justanothersailboat]

There seem to be lots of grades of tufnol, but they generally are described as having good resistance to oils, solvents and hydrocarbons. Lots of tufnol parts running in oily machinery in other applications. I don't think I would worry if I got a bit of paraffin on tufnol. I would try not to soak it as I don't think it's 100% impermeable.

 

[Stemar]

I agree. I wouldn't soak the tufnol, but wetting it with a solvent long enough to scrub the greasy bits with an old toothbrush and a rinse with clean solvent never did any harm on my boats.

 

[vyv_cox]

According to their website Tufnol has good resistance to oils and other hydrocarbon fluids, including solvents.
The characteristics of Tufnol Laminates | Tufnol

My experience with it over many years confirms this.

 

[justanothersailboat]

I did read their site, though they have a surprising number of grades and I can't guess what grade old yacht hardware is. Probably one of the more basic ones though.

Very little tufnol left on my boat any more (just one sheave I think) but I've had the stuff in old machinery and things at home and think it's a pretty robust and capable material. I know it can delaminate but the number of tufnol bits that I've seen on totally neglected boats where the tufnol is still fine, makes me think this isn't likely.

 

[ducked]

I did read their site, though they have a surprising number of grades and I can't guess what grade old yacht hardware is. Probably one of the more basic ones though.

Very little tufnol left on my boat any more (just one sheave I think) but I've had the stuff in old machinery and things at home and think it's a pretty robust and capable material. I know it can delaminate but the number of tufnol bits that I've seen on totally neglected boats where the tufnol is still fine, makes me think this isn't likely.

Oiling isnt generally a threat on totally neglected boats, pretty much by definition.

It could be on mine though

 

[justanothersailboat]

On deck hardware it gets worn, wet, salty, and (in some places) exposed to freeze/thaw cycles. Tufnol gears also run happily in oil in machine tools for decades. So my confidence in it is pretty high either way.

 

[ducked]

On deck hardware it gets worn, wet, salty, and (in some places) exposed to freeze/thaw cycles. Tufnol gears also run happily in oil in machine tools for decades. So my confidence in it is pretty high either way.

Good, cos I gave the horrible-looking-design halyard winch on the mast a pretty good soaking in case I muster the courage to try and get it apart.

https://forums.ybw.com/attachments/91b68cae-fba6-4a32-bd0d-34ccda67120a-jpeg.207454/

I think it'll be a case of "if it aint broke", though I should probably keep soaking it until it is.

 

[justanothersailboat]

Some older winches are definitely nicer designs than others. After a while they all converged on being rather similar. Small basic non-self-tailing winches of essentially modern design are not horribly expensive so your "if it aint broke" may be the right plan - keep using it as long as it works, swap it when it doesn't.

 

[ducked]

Some older winches are definitely nicer designs than others. After a while they all converged on being rather similar. Small basic non-self-tailing winches of essentially modern design are not horribly expensive so your "if it aint broke" may be the right plan - keep using it as long as it works, swap it when it doesn't.

I think once/if it stops working I’ll try amd get it apart, though I’m not sure how this is supposed to be done. Looks like maybe a special tool for the big slot, and maybe a filed down impact driver bit for the horrible wee grub screw.

Assuming there isnt an inherent reason Tufnol halyard winches are awful (the sheet winches seem fine) I might be able to get a used replacement. There are close by,some on here.

 

[ducked]

I note that mast has two. I only have one, on the Port side of the mast

 

[justanothersailboat]

wow, that looks like an average-white-boat owner's default mental image of an old boat. Poor old thing. It deserved better. Two winches may be for jibsheet + spinnaker since that boat seems to have a spinnaker track but no clutches. A fair variety of different arrangements are possible.

If swapping winches there's really no need to get an exact match of design or materials. It's definitely easiest if you can get one on the same bolt circle (but everything else about the design could be different). As soon as you accept a different bolt circle (not usually too hard to adapt) you could really use anything that's about the right size. (edited to add: as long as you're happy with the gear ratios, but again, a variety of options may be tolerable)