Lofrans leopard windlass gearbox stuck

[Higgo]

Does anyone have experience removing the lofrans leopard windlass gearbox. Ours is broken (goes down but gear slips going up). We are trying to remove the gearbox but can't lower it from its position under the deck. The gypsy has been removed and motor taken off the gearbox but we can't get the shaft to slide out of the gearbox so we can take the gearbox out and take it apart to inspect what is broken. Can anyone offer some suggestions?

[8count]

Hi... did you ever figure this out? I am having same problem.

[tkeithlu]

My first thought was that there must be a snap ring in there, but I was not correctly envisioning your problem.

The installation manual shows four bolts joining the above deck windlass to the frame of the gearbox, with a rather long shaft that must pretty well go through the entire gearbox. It has a very long keyway. That arrangement seems to accommodate different thicknesses of deck.

Given you have removed the motor, and assumedly the four nuts, but the shaft won't come out, consider this attack: put the nuts back on, loosely, so they protect the ends of the bolts. The pry between the nuts and the gearbox, going around the four in turn.

I'm guessing that the problem is that old grease has become glue. Flushing the shaft where it goes through the main gear in the gearbox with penetrant oil might help loosen the gear from the shaft.

The next round will be for you to come up with some photos - that's the best I can do based on general knowledge of how things go together.

[Higgo]

Hi we did get the clutch off by tapping washes in all the way around the base and slowly building up the thickness off them until the grease which had become glue just like you said and the circlip gave way.
The bearings had all but disintegrated and circlips fused to the shaft, seals almost non existent, it was remarkable that it was working at all.
It was a delicate and time consuming task to remove the clutch but eventually we did clean up the whole clutch & gearbox. Once again very labour intensive then replaced the circlips and bearings and unfortunately had to get a new worm wheel. But the seals bearings and clips are all generic and purchased anywhere rather than from lofrans and it was 1/6 off the price they were asking.

The gearbox is very robust and can be easily Dismantled and rebuilt but putting the spring back in is not for the faint hearted or under equipped.

Hope that may help you a little

[osprey877]

Have you contacted Lofrans support? I had an issue with my windlass and found they were very helpful with prompt responses.

[Higgo]

We are in Australia and contacted our local agent, they weren't they weren't that helpful but did supply the new worm wheel within 10days...at a cost. We refurbished the windlass by looking at the parts diagram off the net. Nothing too complicated just messy with the congealed grease(mud) and rusted parts. Repainted and good as new.