[jarcher]

Hi All...

I bought a pair of new lewmar 40ST chrome winches, and they arrived today. Beautiful devices! These will replace my existing Lewmar #40 standard winches. I have a few questions about then and I hope someone can help me.

First, my existing #40 winches are older, but I don't know how old. They have no bolts on top, but nor do they have any groves to grab on to like the new winches. How do I open these so I can unbolt them?

I was able to get the new winches apart easily, which is great. I was planning to bed them with butyl tape but I noticed that the holes are close to the opening underneath, which exposes the gears. Should I be concerned that the putty will ooze into the gears when I tighten the mounting bolts? Is there a better choice for bedding compound/sealant?

I see that there is black plastic tab in the line clutch, and that this floats around the clutch. Is the purpose of this to guide the line out of the jaws and, if so, does that mean that it goes clockwise relative to the feeder arm?

Thanks everyone!

 

[sailingdog]

IIRC, the older lewmars used a circlip to hold the top on, rather than having a threaded piece like the newer ST40s. This document should help you disassemble them.

IF you're really worried about the butyl tape getting in, tape off the openings and then bed them. In reality, you're bedding the base of the winch first...and then reassembling it...so you should be able to easily clean off any butyl tape that does ooze up into the winch proper before it can get to the gears. All the parts drop down from above IIRC.

The black plastic tab actually is meant to go into a slot on the back of the chrome line stripper. You probably disassembled the winch too quickly and didn't notice that minor detail. The stripper arm should basically point to where the person tailing the winch is going to be so that the sheet ends up falling into the cockpit by them as opposed to falling off someplace else.

 

[patrickrea]

I'm going to guess that you already found a home for the old winches.

 

[bareboatskipper]

My 40ST showed up with the tab of the stripper ring not under the chrome feeder arm too, kind of weird to see it swinging free around the circumference.

 

[jarcher]

IF you're really worried about the butyl tape getting in, tape off the openings and then bed them. In reality, you're bedding the base of the winch first...and then reassembling it...so you should be able to easily clean off any butyl tape that does ooze up into the winch proper before it can get to the gears. All the parts drop down from above IIRC.

The black plastic tab actually is meant to go into a slot on the back of the chrome line stripper. You probably disassembled the winch too quickly and didn't notice that minor detail. The stripper arm should basically point to where the person tailing the winch is going to be so that the sheet ends up falling into the cockpit by them as opposed to falling off someplace else.

Thanks SD, I'll look more carefully at both these issues. I thought that the underside was actually not accessible from above, because the frame was cast in such a way... Well, I'll take a pic. It would be hell to explain.

 

[jarcher]

My 40ST showed up with the tab of the stripper ring not under the chrome feeder arm too, kind of weird to see it swinging free around the circumference.

That's exactly what is happening and what threw me off.

 

[jarcher]

I'm going to guess that you already found a home for the old winches.

Nope, I have not even thought about that yet, beyond wondering if I should store them so when I sell the boat, they can go back on. But that's 8 years down the road and the admiral won't want them hanging around the house...

I'll look for the clip that SD mentioned. I never noticed it, but I never looked closely either.

 

[blt2ski]

You have a clip at the top of the winch as SE mentioned. Even the newer non ST winches are this way. I am recalling from a class I took a couple of weeks ago from a lewmar rep, there might be one other way to open up lewmars, but those were "REALLY" old.

You should see a clip at the top, about were the circular screw on part is for the ST models.

marty

 

[jarcher]

Changing winches was the easiest job yet!

Yup, I found the clip and it came off easily with a screwdriver, without even bending. The drum came off and the base was easily unbolted. Of course I then grabbed the stem to lift it, but the only thing that came along for the ride was the very greasy top bearing, which quickly fell from my hand and - overboard

So I learned to be more careful. After that everything went very well. I centered the winch on the mounting location, marked the holes, drilled and bolted. Put it back together and all is good.

Thanks for the help!