Mystery parts in Lewmar 48ST

[TacomaSailor]

During the last 20-years I have disassembled, cleaned, greased, and reassembled Miradors Lewmar winches at least every other year. This time, while working on a 48ST I encountered parts and reassembly problems I have never before seen.

here is a nice Lewmar 48ST parts diagram

http://www.seaboats.net/content.asp?...0&prdID=626886

I took everything apart including taking the center spindle (part #22) out of the center stem (#12) which is the large bronze casting bolted to the cockpit coaming. It was hard to get the spindle out due to the dried grease caked on the gear at the bottom of the spindle. I had to make a pri-bar/lever to lift from the bottom. Eventually it came out.

I wanted to clean the vertical machined tube that the spindle rides in. There was sticky grease residue inside the tube. I soaked a nice soft, lint free, cotton sock in acetone and pushed it down thru the tube a couple times. The last time I wrapped a soft nylon handle of a brush inside the sock and then used the brush/sock to scrub the inside of the tube.

I removed the brush handle and then pushed the sock all the way thru the tube and pulled it out from the bottom. Two black nylon spacers came out of the tube along with the sock. Each spacer is 22mm tall and 2.5 mm thick.

NO Lewmar parts diagram, I have three different versions, show any such spacers!

The spacers fit tightly around the central spindle but do not appear on any Lewmar parts diagram. The spacers seem to be too big to fit into either the top or bottom of the spindle tube. The mystery spacer OD (35mm) will never fit in the spindle tube ID (32 mm). The stainless spindle has a 31.5mm diameter and fits tightly in the tube.

The spindle tube has a cast in spacer/bearing in the bottom just above the gear on the lower end of the spindle. There doesn't seem to be a similar spacer/bearing in the top of the tube.

The spindle fits snuggly inside the spindle tube without the nylon spacers in place and there is no play in the spindle when I put the winch handle in an turn it.

How did spacers that are 35mm OD fit inside a 32mm ID tube?
How do I get them back in there?
Why do the spacers not appear in any parts diagram?
What do I do to put the winch back together?


HELP!

[TacomaSailor]

What I thought was a cast in bearing at the bottom of the spindle tube turned out to be a third nylon spacer that was slightly cocked and thus jammed in the tube. I was able to use two screw drivers to press on the edge of the spacer from the top and push it out the bottom of the tube.

NOW - the remaining problem is how to get the three identical spacers to feed up into the tube from the bottom. The spacers all seem to be 2mm wider than the tube BUT - they came out so they must go back in.

[txh2oskier]

Originally Posted by TacomaSailor

here is a nice Lewmar 48ST parts diagram

http://www.seaboats.net/content.asp?...0&prdID=626886

I can't help but may be doing the same thing soon so I wanted to follow along. Unless something is wrong with my browser, the above link points at a picture of a galley rather than a parts diagram. Is it an Ocean 48ST?

Brian

[Suijin]

You posted a picture of your galley, not of the parts diagram.

Can you post a picture of the spacers? That would be helpful.

[Captain Blue]

Could they be the side shields from a bearing?

[Rumlater]

Can you post a picture of mystery parts, I do not remember anything like that when I did my winches last summer and as you already stated the exploded diagram does should anything that you describe

[TacomaSailor]

The three sleeves (bushings or spacers) do not appear on any parts diagram. The local Lewmar expert at the local Lewmar distributor found a parts diagram that mentions the sleeves but says "parts not shown."

Neither he, a 20-year Lewmar parts guy, or the two riggers who have cleaned and rebuilt hundreds of Lewmar 48 ST winches recognized the parts.

I've attached the lewmar parts diagram and two annotated blowups of the diagram.

I cold soaked the spacers and can get ONE up into the center tube but it gets so tight while pushing it upward I can't get the next one to start.

Any ideas will be appreciated

I checked the other 48ST on the boat and it also has the three spacers inside the center tube and they will not move with more than gentle persuasion.

[TacomaSailor]

There is a 4 mm long lip on the lower inside of the center tube that is supposed to prevent the spacers from sliding out. Once the top of the spacer is driven upward past the top edge of the lip - the rest of the spacer slides right in.


I used the central spindle as a pilot but didn't let the bottom of it protrude below the spacer bottom. I then started tapping on the bottom spacer with the handle end of a big crescent wrench. I felt the spacer move a little and whacked it a bit harder. After about four sharp blows it popped right up into the tube.


The 2nd one only needed three whacks and by the time I got to the third spacer I used one light tap to get it seated and a sharp one to drive it up into the tube.


It is a rare event when I find I have been using too little force!