Lewmar Model 10 winch service

[edmundsteele]

I am servicing a 1980 vintage Lewmar 10 winch, single speed, non-tailing. Everything smooth as glass until I try to reassemble. The two pawls at the base are “sticking out” and preventing the body from sliding on completely. The pawls are lubricated and spring smoothly back into the body when pressed by my finger before reassembly but will not pop into place when I slide the winch body on. Any suggestions anyone? What have I overlooked?
Ed

[Marathon1150]

I think that I have a similar issue with a slightly larger single speed winch on our mast that handles reefing lines. That boat is far away at the moment but my recollection from the last service just over a year ago was to use a string to hold the pawls "in" until the winch body is down low enough to hold the pawls in place. Then untie and remove the string before sliding the body all the way down. This needs to be done carefully because the teeth inside the winch body need to be aligned with the pawls before removing the string.

I look forward to other solutions from other readers because this is (or was) an annual issue. That winch is on our boat in Tahiti and we won't be going back there this year, but....

[edmundsteele]

Hi Marathon,
I have serviced dozens of winches over the past couple of decades but this one has me puzzled. There are two set of pairs of pawls on this winch, top and bottom of the drum. The bottom pair are mounted inside the drum body so that I need something to push them away from the central spindle in order to to seat the drum. Basically the opposite problem of the situation you described where you use a piece string to hold the pawls in against the spindle. There must be a trick to this!
Ed

[Emmalina]

Turn it while assembling !

[edmundsteele]

I have tried turning while assembling it. Pressing down hard while turning. Turning the opposite direction. So far nada. There is a fiber washer at the base of the spindle and I have turned this so that it has two slots facing up but these have not functioned as hoped. (I thought they might capture the ends of the pawls.) You can see from the indentation in the oil film on the pawls that they are hitting on the last 1/8th. inch.

[edmundsteele]

After about 2 hours of vocalized obscenities (by me - not the winch) it just dropped into place. Got fed up torturing me I suppose.
Ed

[SV__Grace]

These winches are put together with the parts oriented a certain way and I notice that whenever I have a problem with the last step (installing the drum) it's usually because I inadvertently did something wrong in the assembly. Even taking pictures along the way doesn't seem to prevent my mucking it up occasionally.

[Marathon1150]

hi again: I was correct that I have a winch like that but mis-remembered how I reassemble it after cleaning and lubrication. Here are some photos that I took the last time I took it apart. I service the winches about every 2 years and in between I tend to forget how each one works and this particular winch has the two "surprise" pawls at the bottom which on at least one occasion fell out of the drum when I removed it from the base. I usually have a towel underneath the winch so nothing bounced overboard.

Sorry for sending along incorrect instructions previously. Basically, I do what you did - install the bottom pawls and then wiggle/jiggle things while poking at one the pawls with a thin screwdriver to help it find its place. Sometimes its possible to do it with both.

I then insert the top two pawls once the drum is back in place. We have had this boat for just about 20 years and this particular winch is my least favourite to service for obvious reasons.





The other winch on the mast, a 2 speed self-tailing Lewmar with alloy drum has two small coil springs underneath the bit that holds the drum on. These springs, no matter how carefully I removed the cover plate, always surprise me with their antics. My second least favourite winch. But it is the main halyard winch and therefore quite important.