Lewmar 30 Spindle Issue

[Footloose]

I am stripping my winches, cleaning and greasing and reassembling.  I had a great deal of difficulty removing the port side spindle.  When it finally came out I discovered that the splines were deformed/galled.  I do not know how this could have happened.  Looking at the size of the teeth it appears that it would take an excessive amount of force to do this.  I believe I can salvage the winch by machining the deformed material off.  I did score the bearing surface when removing the shaft so I will have to hone it to at least take the edges off.  Has anyone else has this happen?  Could not find anything on a search.

[Clay Greene]

No idea as to the reason for the deformation but let me know if you want to replace it.  I have a spare Lewmar 30 from our 1989 boat sitting in my garage from when we replaced it with a self-tailing winch. E-mail me at greenesail@sbcglobal.net if you are interested. 

[Footloose]

Clay,

Thanks for the offer, but I just got done machining the shaft and I think I will be fine.  It is true, as I was wondering if it was bent.  Still a mystery.  I don't think that hauling someone up the mast would do this. I don't believe that I have the strength to deform these teeth.

[Stu Jackson]

Dave, glad you got it worked out.

Why anyone would use the cabintop 30s to get someone up the mast is beyond me.  Perhaps they figured that if their jib or main halyards came back to the cabintop winches it would work.  NOT.  

We always use the jib sheet winches, which are huge in comparison.  We run the halyard over the deck to the jib fairlead and back to the winch.

[Footloose]

Stu

I agree that the larger winches are the way to go up the mast.  As I am not the first owner, just trying to figure it out.  The engineer in me has to know.  I tend to try to fix everything, when sometimes it probably makes more sense to replace it. 

[Phil Spicer]

   We had the same problem with the port side winch. Cleaned up the bearing and spindle and all is fine.
   The jib sheet is on that winch all summer without a stopper. Does the tension on the winch change enough each time you tack so that it would jerk the sheet and hammer at the teeth on the spindle? Never gave that a thought.
   That winch is never used to take me up the mast but the teeth were deformed...Had the boat since 93. Could it just be the effort to get the jib up each year burred the teeth? The second half is often tough to get up. A lot of hard cranking most years. Now I use a lot of Mc  Lube in the tracks.

[Stu Jackson]

Phil, we use our jib halyard once / twice a year. I've set it on the cleat on the mast,  No need to keep it run aft.  I doubt it affected the winch, though.