Anyone have experience rebuilding vertical electric windless ?

[lukinc]

I have a VRC vertical electric rope-chain windlass on my
1993 Pacific Seacraft-37 that I am going to rebuild.

I removed the motor but have some concerns about removing the gear box.
(the ger box is below deck in the chain locker).

It looks like the gear box is bolted to the windlass (obove deck) with 4 stainless hex head bolts. The grear box flange is aluminum and I believe the windlass flange is bronze (at this point I cannot see the flange above the gear box flange so I'm guessing its bronze). Does anyone know if the flange that the hex bolts are threaded into is bronze?

Does anyone have any experience removing the bolts that hold the gear box to the windless? Or removing the gear box? Am I going to find that the bolts are frozen to the aluminum flange? Any suggestions to make disassembly easier?

Thanks

Craig

[SalishCraig]

Last weekend I removed my vertical Muir windlass with help from the experts at IMTRA Corp. I was concerned that the 4 stainless steel bolts would be frozen to the aluminum gear box but that wasn't really a problem...seperating the shaft from the gear box was.

I was told by the service manager at IMTRA that after removing the 4 stainless steel bolts that connect the aluminum gear box to the brass windlass, I might not be able to slide the gear box off of the shaft. He was correct.

He then told me that its easier to take apart the windlass from the top down, and discribed how to remove the rope capstan, chain capstan and clutch plate (with pawls). Remove the rope capstan using a winch handle (if you already removed the bolts you'll have to put them back first). Remove the chain gear by removing the screw with a 1/8 allen key (this was really hard and I when the screw finally loosened I thought I actually broke the allan key instead.
The clutch plate is removed by tapping out a retainer pin. YOu might have to rotate the shaft to allow the pin to clear the windlass deck plate.

Put a old deck cushon under the gear box so when it drops it makes a soft landing. Once the clutch plate is removed just tap on the shaft and it will drop through the deck.

The IMTRA service manager said I'd need to take the gear box with shaft still connected to a machine shop to have the shaft pressed out with a hydaulic press. I took mine to Ballard Electric and they used their 20-ton press to push out the shaft. It took a great amount of force before it budged and when it did it made a loud pop. Shaft and gear box appeared unharmed.

I'm waiting for shipment of a new motor and gear box now. I'll update this thread after I install the new parts.

Craig