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Re: Mizzen furler gearbox, A54 peculiarity?

Mohammad Shirloo
 

Thank you Randall for the detailed explanation.

 

Happy Sailing;

 

 

Mohammad and Aty

B&B Kokomo

AMEL 54 #099

 

From: main@AmelYachtOwners.groups.io <main@AmelYachtOwners.groups.io> On Behalf Of Randall via groups.io
Sent: Friday, May 15, 2020 3:28 AM
To: main@amelyachtowners.groups.io
Subject: Re: [AmelYachtOwners] Mizzen furler gearbox, A54 peculiarity?

 

Hello Mohammad and Aty,

 

Were you able to simply untwist the bottom cap of the furler assembly with the tool you sketched

Unbolt the furler from the foil, I used the uphaul to raise the foil enough to clear furler. Remove 2 bolts that hold furler to the mast.

Then you will need a sturdy vice and a form of wrap to protect the aluminium casing from the vice teeth.

 

First loosen the bottom, counter clockwise. Just a turn or two.

Then remove the cranking shaft, (keeping the cracking shaft in the furler, while loosening in the bottom, just helps hold the furler while loosening the bottom.)

Then finish removing the bottom. Caution first set of bearings are under the bottom cap.

 

The tool I showed was a square metal bar with two holes. The holes are the same spacing as the furler holes. The drill bits are the same size and simply use the bottom of the drill bits through the bar, and that will give you the ability to undo the end cap counter clockwise, and still have the two drill bits for future use.

 

All that was required was to clean everything inside? Were you able to reuse the bearing?

The bearings are dry, the same as in your travelers. I simply cleaned them and put them back in, no grease. They were very coated in salt, but not damaged.

The main issue was the Delrin/plastic inserts for the crank. After very carefully removing the Delrin, I cleaned and as I recall used some lithium grease on the gear shaft.

If I had to guess, the grease may not have been needed. 

 

 

Any other parts or lubrications needed?

If the mizzen is only stiff this can be done in a short time. I have attached the problem area picture and one from Bill Rouse showing the Delrin. I believe this is from his book, showing the Delrin pieces, there are two.

Also the holes in my furlers bottom did go straight through to give drainage as you can see in the teardown picture.

The hole project should only be time and some white grease.

Reassembly had only one puzzle ring moment! When you go to put the upper bearings in, push the internal mechanism in to a point you can just fit the upper bearings in then the rest will be easy.

 

Hope that helps,

Randall

 

On Thu, May 14, 2020 at 10:46 PM Mohammad Shirloo <mshirloo@...> wrote:

Hi Randall;

 

Although our “temporary” fix of spraying CorrosionX in the furler has lasted over 4 years and the furler is still very smooth, it has been on our list to service the unit, once we figure out how to get into it. I have a few questions that I would appreciate your response on:

 

  1. Were you able to simply untwist the bottom cap of the furler assembly with the tool you sketched?
  2. All that was required was to clean everything inside?
  3. Were you able to reuse the bearing?
  4. Any other parts or lubrications needed?

 

Thanks for providing this very useful information and sharing your experience.

 

Happy Sailing;

 

 

Mohammad and Aty

B&B Kokomo

AMEL 54 #099

 

From: main@AmelYachtOwners.groups.io <main@AmelYachtOwners.groups.io> On Behalf Of Randall via groups.io
Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2020 12:41 PM
To: main@amelyachtowners.groups.io
Subject: Re: [AmelYachtOwners] Mizzen furler gearbox, A54 peculiarity?

 

Thomas,

I removed disassembled and cleaned my mizzen outhaul last fall. You don't need to drop sail. The issue will be in the Delrin bushings that become very stiff. I have attached 2 pictures of my work. The bearings are not to be lubed/greased. I used a cheap homemade tool to unscrew the bottom. 2cm square bar 2 drill holes straight through, put the drill bits in so the solid end goes into the bottom of the furler, with furler in a vice. Worked great. 

I finished and put on a video from a fellow Amel owner who did the same job. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EB67b2hK-kA&t=657s

They do the job at 8.02 of the video. If you need more info let me know. Use the bar not the saw.

Cheers.

 

Randall

A54 #56

Gibraltar

 

 

 

On Wed, May 13, 2020 at 6:50 PM Sv Garulfo <svgarulfo@...> wrote:

Hi all,

 

In the great document by Gary Silver about the overhaul of the SM Mizzen furler gearbox (thanks Arno for sending us a low bandwidth friendly version), it is mentioned that the bottom part of the gearbox housing is drilled with 2 holes that are used to both unscrew that part (with great efforts) and drain the gearbox of liquids. 

 

As our gearbox got stiffer recently, I removed it and it appears that those 2 holes are not through openings.. thus not acting as drains. And the gearbox was full of rainwater up to the attachment bolts. Arno tells me he saw the same. 

So the teflon bushing got very dirty and stiff with all sorts of deposits. 

 

Does anybody know why the drains are no longer machined through? Is it an A54 “innovation”? 

It doesn’t really make sense and I’m thinking of drilling those holes all the way through to reinstate the drain. Any word of advice against that idea?

 

Thanks for your input

 

Best, 

 

 

Thomas

GARULFO 

A54-122

Tahuata, French Polynesia 

 

 
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