Winch Servicing 101                                 Printable Page

The sailing season is over and it’s a great time to service your winches in the comfort of your warm dry home so they will be ready to go next season.  Depending on the type of winch you may have on your boat, you may be able to easily remove either the whole winch, or most of it for easy transport and servicing, without removing its mount or base.  Now is a good time to take note of the orientation of your stripper rings if you have self-tailing winches.

Assuming you have a few winches in your garage, begin by assembling all the items you will need to do the job.  Some items I found useful are listed below:

• Automotive oil drain pan

• Gallon of regular paint thinner, Kerosene or diesel.

• Stiff plastic bristle Parts cleaning brush

• Wire brush (bench grinder with wire brush is great)

• Toothbrush

• Lots of rags

• Gloves

• Large and small Philips and slotted regular screwdrivers

• Putty knife, hammer, brass, aluminum or hardwood round stock for dislodging stuck parts.

• Parts diagram for your model winches – available from the web.

• New pawls and pawl springs

• Lanocote or your favorite anti-corrosive,

• Duralac joint compound

• WD-40 or 3-in-1 light oil

• Lubriplate waterproof lightweight grease.

 Respirator (there is cumulative damage from breathing crude related products)

  I found it easy to follow the following steps and work on one type of winch at a time as you become familiar with its design.  The mains steps are to disassemble, clean, reassemble some items with anti-corrosive, grease and final assembly.  

  1. Begin by disassembling one winch at a time; keeping all parts together with same winch and carefully noting how they came apart.  (a digital camera is great for this.)  You can keep sub-assemblies together and work on them individually to make things easier. You will likely find lots of dirt, old grease and even note corrosion between any aluminum and stainless parts.  Carefully dislodge parts that have become “welded” together by corrosion and dirt.  Now is a good time to wipe the big chunks of grease and dirt off.  Once you have the winch entirely disassembled, move on to the cleaning stage.
  2. Separate parts between those that just need corrosion removed and those that need old grease removed.  Corrosion will likely be evident on screws, bolts and other surfaces as a white powdery substance and is easily removed with either a wire brush or putty knife (flat surfaces).  Make sure to get it all off!  For bearings, gears and pawls, these parts can be tossed into the oil drain pan with about ½” of solvent.  This will loosen up old grease and allow you to clean them up will with rags and brushes.  As you clean the parts, set them aside to dry on a clean rag.  Make sure they are all clean and gum-free.
  3. Let all parts dry overnight!  Do not reassemble and grease with solvent still on the parts as it will break down the grease and harm your winches.  If you must reassemble the same day, hand-wash all parts with soap and water and dry before reassembly.
  4. Optional step – Chrome.  For those old tired winches that have lost their original chrome luster, now is the time to consider having these key parts re-chromed.  The anti-slip section of the drum is usually a pattern in the underlying metal and re-chroming will not remove this surface.  Alaska Electroplating can do your drums and stripper rings and they are quite reasonable.
  5. Assembly of non-moving parts and pawls – reassemble any parts that do not need grease and will not be disassembled in the near future (example: aluminum base, stainless main spindle sleeve) using Duralac.  This forms a long lasting barrier layer between these parts that will not melt away with heat, etc.  For all screws, I used Lanocote.  For all pawls, DO NOT USE GREASE!  Pawls should only be lubricated with a light oil like 3-in-one or WD-40.  Grease will gum them up and make them stick – causing a potential very dangerous situation if a winch were to let go and spin the wrong way.  I’ve heard of arms and legs being broken from this.
  6. Final assembly of your winches.  This is the final step where you will apply light grease to all moving parts EXCEPT PAWLS.  Thoroughly work the grease into the bearings, rolling them between your fingers until you are sure they are “packed” well.  You can use a small stiff brush to apply grease to all teeth of the gears and other moving parts.  Be thorough.  When you are ready to put the drum on the assembly, make sure you have greased the underside teeth (especially if you have had it chromed, as ALL the grease will have been completely removed).  Be sure to spin the winch with your hand and check its operation and any speeds.

The last step is to install them back on your boat.  I found this to be much easier in the spring when things are a bit warmer.  Be sure, if you don’t already have them, to purchase and use winch covers!  The amount of glacial silt and coal dust in Seward will quickly destroy your finely machined surfaces and believe me; you don’t want to be buying new winches.

Happy sailing,

  Mark Ward

S/V Radiance

mvward@anmc.org                                                    Printable Page