Hi

Could I get some guidance from the knowledge bank....

I have older Lewmar 16, 2 speed sheet winches.

I broke them down last week to try and service them - its been a long time since anyone has shown them any love, and they more or less just screeched, rather than that nice tick tick of the pawls clicking by.

I faced a couple of problems:

I couldn't get the bottom 2 gears out. On-line I found a service guide and it shows:

a) a pin to be removed to get the ratchet gear out, but I seem to have a flat "tab" with no immediately apparent way to remove it; and

b) no indication how to get at the idler gear. Do I have to remove the whole base from the deck ??

I cleaned up the bottom gears as best I could, reassembled and greased and oiled as instructed. Once assembled the winches made the nice ticking sounds when the sheets moved around at moderate pace (a big improvement) but pulling lengths through at high speed and we are back to the screech.

Photos attached.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

KK

I would remove the base to get it all clean and as it looks like you have a hole in the deck as well.

You can tap that tab sideways to rotate it out of its key, then you can probably prise the pin out, slide bearing and cog sideways to clean and lubricate them, but you'll still be left with a dirty and difficult to lubricate lower centre cog. Bite the bullet and remove it. It'll then be easier to tap out the pin (15) though you'll still have to rotate the tab out of its retaining notch. As NSWSailor noted, yours are replacement winches, and you would be wise to fill the holes from the original equipment.

Hi

My thanks for the replies - i was afraid that would be the response. I was thinking the same thing but was hoping that there was going to be a happy shortcut ! (They're most definitely replacement gear - the build was in 1969/1970).

Cheers

KK

The Idler spindle appears to be home made, turn it until a flat section aligns with the body of the winch, then it should lift out. The Idler gear and Rachet gear should come out through the same opening.
Here is a handy vid: