Stripping a small vertical windlass

[Omatako]

Hi guys

I have a small fizz boat that I am selling and like all things being sold, it chooses now to have a breakage, namely the windlass.

It is a small vertical windlass, no names on it other than the electric motor which is a Lucas which leads me to Lewmar (British?) but I have scoured the net and find nothing that looks exactly like this one (probably because it's 18 years old).

When powered on, the winch sounds like it's running fine but the main spindle doesn't turn. So electrically it's OK. I have stripped the rope drum and the chain gypsy off and there is a friction cone on the bottom of the shaft. There are no signs that this cone is keyed or threaded onto the spindle, no circlips, nothing obvious.

Here's my problem: The gearbox (which is where I believe the problem is) is obviously inside the boat, there is a deck plate on the deck, these two bits sandwich the deck with four bolts on deck but only three nuts down below. The fourth bolt must be screwed into the gearbox housing. BUT the cone that I refer to above does not pass through the deck plate (hole too small). I can turn the shaft/cone with a vice-grip with some difficulty but I can't lift it upwards.

It seems that I must get this shaft off before I can remove the gearbox but I can't figure out how. The drawings that I have found on the Lewmar site show a circlip and/or a keyway on the bottom of the shaft depending on the model.

Does anyone have any ideas on how this lot fits together or more to the point, how it comes apart? Or maybe someone knows of a website where I can get some useful info

Thanks
Andre

[sailingdog]

My guess is you have an electric version of the old Anchorman, by Simpson-Lawrence. They were bought out by Lewmar, and have since been since discontinued. Does your windlass look like this:



If so, you may be able to get parts for it here. BTW, this site has diagrams for the Anchorman 700 and 1000.

[Omatako]

SD - Thanks for that and yes it looks something like that but I suspect it's a lot older. The gearbox on mine is a square block without any of the profiled indentations. It also doesn't have a winch handle socket on top, there is a large screw that appears to hold - well - nothing.

The parts that are displayed on your link are similar but not the same. I found a PDF on the Lewmar site that sort of resembels my unit but the exploded view doesn't really show how it comes apart and that's what I don't know.

Here's what the thing looks like:



The top knurled bit screws off and both the drums can be removed without removing the screw on the top. This is what it looks like with the drums removed.



The cone on the bottom forms a friction joint with the chain gypsy but this is the part that I can't seem to move off the shaft and it clearly prevents the shaft from going into the boat. But it has no visible retaining device (keyway, circlip, etc.) and it turns with the shaft.



These are the two drums and where they interface (the rope drum is upside down). The rope drum and the chain gypsy have a friction cone between them as can be seen with little cut-outs but these have no obvious purpose other than perhaps carrying grease.



This is the bottom of the chain gypsy where it interfaces with the cone on the bottom of the shaft.

And after all that, my mission is to get the shaft to either come off the top with the friction cone or the friction cone to come off the shaft. I just can't figure out how

Hopefully there's a forumite around who works with these things that can help.

Thanks so far.

Andre.

[sailingdog]

Remove the four screws in the base, and the thing should lift off. That's how it is on the more modern Anchorman, and I doubt its much different on the older unit. The motor will then drop out the bottom when you remove those screws—letting you pull the motor and gearbox.

The collar might have a set screw and come off, but I it is hard to tell from the photo.

[Omatako]

SD - thanks that seems to make some sense. If I understand you correctly, the shaft and collar are not fixed to the gearbox but are held in place by the top plate so when the top plate comes off, the shaft/collar will come off with it.

Of the four screws, one is blind-threaded into the gearbox housing. The other three come out the bottom with nuts on. Unfortunately the last one has a very insubstantial screw-driver slot in it and cannot be undone so I guess I'll have to drill the head off .

All I really need is to get the gearbox in my hand then the rest is easy . I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks
Andre

[sailingdog]

Andre—

IIRC, the shaft and collar are part of the gearbox, and come up through the deck via a hole cut in the center of the deck under the base plate. The plate is what holds the gearbox and motor in position.

BTW, I'd highly recommend using a screw extractor rather than a drill bit.

[Omatako]

SD - thanks again for the advice but the bolts are about 7 inhes long and in holes that hold the shank quite tight. A screw extractor will not work. What I need is to drill into the head with progessively larger drills until there is no more head then the gearbox can be extracted with the shank of the bolt still in place. Once out the rest is easy.

Andre

[sailingdog]

I can see how a screw extractor would be less than useful in that case... Just be careful not to damage the windlass base then.