Nightmare on

lewmar street.

I awoke to a screeching sound. I immediately realized it was the starboard

lewmar 58 electric winch. I turned off the circuit breaker and then opened up the aft inspection port. To my amazement I saw the armature of the motor half out of the housing. I disconnected the motor from the gear box and was introduced to a shower of oil from the gearbox. After cleaning this up I saw that the two bolts about 17 cm long were broken off and bent.

They hold the motor together, also the negative electric bolt was bent and the fiberglass nearby was damaged.

 

I looked into the manual and found the parts breakdown. The

gearbox is set up with a keyed shaft that runs through it and up to the drive shaft of the winch.

It is suspended from a round plate with 4 bolts in it. I removed the bolts but the shaft was frozen to the plate. Same

prob lem as the outhaul on the mainsail.

We were lucky as the bottom of the shaft is accessible. (Completely disassemble the winch before doing this)

We used a long steel rod and drove the shaft out

og the plate.

We were then greeted by about 5 cap screws-some which were sheared off.

The plate is held on to the bottom of a heavy extrusion of the winch mounting plate and extends about 10 cm below the deck. This extrusion and plate keep the motor from turning

when the bolts became loose and broke the problem began.

I will be sending out the winch base to a machine shop to have them remove the stubs of the broken cap screws.

 

I spoke to

lewmar –they said the motor should be regularly removed the cap screws checked for tightness and grease the shaft—it is nowhere in the manual.

My only current problem is that the motor must be American and the 17 cm long bolts are ¼ -20

SAE threads. Ibought a piece of threaded rod and will make the bolts if I can not finf the replacement,

 

Moral—grease the shaft of the drive motor. Luckily it was the starboard winch and not the port winch as I am not exactly thin enough for that job. But I will have someone drop that winch and see what is going on with it.

 

This sounds like an easy project but it took days.

 

Eric sm376 Kimberlite