Two winch servicing questions

laika

laika

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Today I serviced a couple of winches I had neglected since they were serviced by some reputable riggers when I bought the boat. Mr Calder tells me that winches should be lightly greased with a teflon based grease. However I notice that at least some professionals whack on loads of grease and I've been told "nah...ordinary waterproof grease and loads of it".

Is a possible explanation that if you're going to service your winches twice a season with expensive winch grease you don't need much, but for the average joe who slaps a load of Raminol Advance on every 2 years more is better? If not, who's right?

Second question: the pawls for my Barient winches are looking fine but when I baulked at the frightening cost of ordering just-in-case spares from Australia, Andy in the now defunct yachtparts (who could generally be relied on to know his nautical onions) flogged me some (Lewmar I think) which he assured me would be OK in Barients. I now note that they're rather shorter than the originals (maybe 3 or 4mm?). Anyone had experience of using shorter replacements?
 
I reckon a moderate amount of grease on most of the works (and I don't use posh winch grease) - but it's important not to surround the pawls with grease as they may then stick. Ordinary machine oil on those.

Pete
 
I work for Lewmar so can speak with some authority on the subject :)

Basically, any metal on metal zones should be LIGHTLY greased. Slapping on loads of the stuff results in one of two things...the excess grease hardens and causes more problems than it ever solved, or the excess grease runs into the pawl pockets and can stick the pawls, preventing the springs from working and causing a potential dangerous back-wind.

On that basis, grease should not go anywhere near the pawls or pawl pockets. In these areas a light machine oil should be used instead, 1 or 2 drops more than sufficient.
 
I've had to service my winches that at some time had had grease slathered on the insides.
  • The grease has set into a varnish like layer in places, and is INCREDIBLY diffficult to remove (I've used variety of solvents , and my brother used an automotive degreasing setup, which worked better than solvents).
  • It has penetrated things like roller-bearings, making them stiff. Again, nearly impossible to clean out.
  • The "varnishing" effect was so bad that on one winch it was causing the barrel to bind on the spindle, making the winch very stiff.
  • Don't use grease, and don't use too much!
 
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Not only does too much grease gum up the winch but in the sunshine it also often runs out of the winch and all over the decking. Less is more where greasing winches is concerned.

I'm not sure about your pawls question, but since they do all the real work in a winch I'd want the right sized ones.
 
This isn't something I'm entirely clueless at but the amount of grease previously applied to these winches and a conversation with a boatwright who was advocating large dollops of standard white grease made me doubt myself. Replies here mainly reinforce what I initially thought and a chat with a rigger today confirms it and also confirmed my suspicion that in the ideal case of very little grease at all you'd also be wanting to service the winches more often than the average cruiser gets round to it. Didn't consider anything other than oil on the pawls.

On the shorter replacement pawls for Barient winches...I would have thought it was a no go but I do see how it could be ok and I had a lot of respect for the knowledge of the former proprietor of yachtparts and he seemed pretty sure they'd work when I acquired them a couple of years ago. Was just hoping there was someone with a Barient winches who;d actually used shorter replacements who could reassure me that they had worked fine for X years before I trust to them as my emergency spares.
 
laika said:
Second question: the pawls for my Barient winches are looking fine .....................I now note that they're rather shorter than the originals (maybe 3 or 4mm?). Anyone had experience of using shorter replacements?
Click to expand...

I am sure that size difference will not work. I have a vague recollection that Barient and Barlow were related companies? (certainly both Australian). Lewmar pawls fit my Barlow winches fine. However, there are two common sizes of Lewmar pawls. Maybe you have the wrong one? Most chandlers used to stock the pawls separately. but today you will have to search hard.
 
sarabande said:
would motorcycle chain grease (spray) be an option for winch internals ?

The Castrol spray I use on the bikes (and some agr machinery) issues as a thin fluid, then becomes a very light grease, which is very resistant to water, and seems to be very protective against corrosion.
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I doubt it. The grease will probably get everywhere, including on the pawls, and it's probably too sticky for winch use. I've never found corrosion much of an issue with well-maintained winch internals. A spray works uniquely well on a chain because it makes the grease easy to apply, but there are no such issues with a winch. Besides, chains last much better with a continuous oiling arrangement rather than grease.
 
:I have Barient winches and I know that I have a packet of Lewmar pawls that I carry as spares, however I am sure that I compared the size and they matched when I serviced the winches last, so either they are the same or the "originals" were replaced by the previous owner. However they certainly do work. I will double check when down on the boat next week as I do have some original spares in a locker somewhere.
 
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I just did all five of my winches, after some years of neglect because they were working OK. I had originally greased them with the black Harken winch grease that is sold in expensive 100ml tubes. My old tube still had an £8.57 sticker on it. What I found was that very little dirt had got into any of my winches, except for the size 28 mast winch which is mounted horizontally. In the others the grease had remained soft and was still doing its job. I simply cleaned off as much as possible and re-greased. In so doing I ran out and bought a new tube of Harken winch grease, which is white, so much cleaner to apply. Given my experience of the long life of the proper winch grease I would not try other greases which might harden. As for quantity, I probably used too much, but the first tube of grease did all five winches once (I x 28, 2 x 44 and 2 x 53) and the 28, both 44s and one 53 the second time round, meaning that I averaged about 11ml of grease per winch. I gave all the pawl pockets one drop of sewing machine oil.
 
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