Several issues with my Jib on a Hood 800SL

[Set2sea]

The jib is awful to get all the way up. It takes all of my body weight to advance it upward. The halyard is becoming black, which tells me the sheave in the mast head isn't turning.
There also seems to be an issue with the sail making it past the joints in the head stay extrusion.
Also, when unfurling, the drum is so full of line that it stops rotation and the jib doesn't furl out all the way. I believe I have 3/8 line on there. As it is, the length of furling line I have on there is too short. I have tried to remove the drum cover and broke the first screw and can't budge the others.
Questions:
Is it common that the sheaves in the mast head stop turning?
Do others with the Hood 800SL have the issue of drum becoming too full before the jib is out?
Have folks dumped this furler for the aforementioned?

[Ted Pounds]

Garhauer makes ball bearing sheaves for the masthead. They're a great upgrade. 

[Stephen Butler]

Replace ours a few years back with the Garhauer ball bearing ones and they are a major improvement!  Highly recommend them per Ted's suggestion.

[Stu Jackson]

Unless you're a died in the wool DIY skipper, it sounds like you need a rigger, and either a new forestay extrusion or new furling gear.  That's what I'd do.

This might, and probably will, devolve into a "Which furling gear should I buy?" discussion.

We have a ProFurl LCI32 with long link plates.  Been great for the past decade or more.  "Darth Vader" headstop eliminates the need to install a halyard restrainer on the top of the mast.  But yours might have to come down anyway.

Harken's good, too. 

Depends on your wallet. 

Your boat, your choice. 

You could do a search here on "furler" or "Darth Vader" for earlier discussions on furler gear.

Good luck.

[Ron Hill]

Paul : You have a number of problems:
1. Black Halyard - doesn't mean the sheave isn't turning - as it could be just mold!  Look at the halyard line, that should tell you if the line is wearing!
2. Jamming jib - the 3 or 4 extrusions are not aligned and causing friction on the sail "bolt rope" - the rivets on one or more are probably loose and need replacement.
3. Drum jamming - Either you are using too large a line or the furling line is not aligned with the drum properly??    The line should be no thicker than 3/8" and no longer than about 70ft.    The furling line should be 90 degrees to the furling drum and with the sail furled have no more that about 4 wraps around the drum.

Look in the Mainsheet tech notes and you find that I wrote an article on installing a new Hood 808 open drum furler on a 1988 C34.   Things don't last forever and Hood will give Hood furler owners a discount on a new system!!

A few thoughts

[Set2sea]

Okay, thanks for the input guys. The first thing I am going to check is the alignment of the line to the drum.

[DaveM]

I don't know if this helps.  But I recall from the instructions and what I had to do, was decore the first oh about 1/3 (check instructions) of the furling line.  Other wise I would have ended up with the same problem you describe.  After that it worked great.

Good Winds
DaveM

[Ted Pounds]

I would think stripping the cover would be easier and work better...

[Ron Hill]

Guys : What Dave is talking about are the Hood instructions when using 7/16" line!!

Hood told me the same thing and I thought why strip the core from 7/16" line - so I tried 3/8" line and it worked OK!! 
I'll guess that Hood called for 7/16" line for an better grip, but I found that 3/8" worked great!!

A thought