Best practice for servicing Lewmar winches

[sinnerman]

Best (?) practices..

Place a towel abound the winch and another hanging over the lifelines to form a "shield" to stop any parts from jumping overboard.

Have the correct manual / parts list on-hand (if you can find one).

Take pictures as you disassemble to remember how to put it together..

Some people say not to remove the base from the deck. This is true ONLY if you can completely disassemble the unit. My two older ST40 Lewmar winches can only have the bottom gears removed if you have access to the underside.

I used mineral sprits to clean the parts (remove the years of old grease). Not as harsh (especially on plastic) as brake parts cleaner. An ultrasonic cleaner would make the job easier if you have one...

Use Lewmar grease. They sell a maint kit which comes with grease, oil, springs and a very nice brush. The brush is to apply the grease (not to clean the parts).

Put new springs in the unit. Also pawls if they are worn/chipped. Make sure the springs are inserted correctly and have their "tails" engaged.

Apply only a very light brushing of grease on the parts that come into contact with each other (using the brush). Make sure the roller bearings have grease on all of the bearings (rotate them). Do not slobber grease everywhere.

No grease on the pawls. Put only oil on the pawls in their pivot area (a slight amount of grease however IS applied on the ratchet gear the pawls engage).

The older Lewmars are out of production. Parts, other than the pawls and springs) are scarce. There is a guy in the UK still making some parts but he is getting ready to retire.

cheers.

[wrwakefield]

Just a note re: degreaser:

WD-40 makes a water based [i.e., non-flammable and no toxic fumes] ‘Specialist Degreaser and Cleaner’ that works very well on old, caked on grease.

And it is harmless to materials typically found on a boat- including paint…

It is available in pre-diluted liquid form in gallons, spray bottles, and aerosol cans. It is also available as a concentrate, which is what I prefer on the boat to optimize storage requirements [and allow the option of varying the % dilution as needed...]

FWIW

Cheers, Bill

[Nicholson58]

I removed all 17 ancient Lewmar winches one at a time to a soak tank where I work. Removed all grease dirt etc. I had access to a machine shop to make replacements for obsolete parts. 38 years of use and zero maintenance culminated in lots of dirt in the buckets