Thanks Randall,

I will attempt to watch the video but I doubt the bandwidth here will allow that...

Further to Mohammad’s question, did you find a bearing inside or delrin balls like Gary described? 

As far as I can see through the horizontal shaft opening, there is a vertical element (consistent with the diagram in Gary’s document) that is supposed to be on a set of derlin balls at the bottom of the housing, but mine does not rotate at all. 

Clearly the gearing housing is not waterproof and without drains it will inevitably fill with dirt and water up to the attachment bolts. The bushing is then halfway soaked in that and the aluminium/stainless steel interface between the gearshaft and the winch handle socket attachment will corrode. The oxidation on the aluminium shaft will slowlly increase the friction to the bushing. The gears are moving freely otherwise. 

So, drill for drain or not? 

Thanks

Thomas

GARULFO 

A54-122

Tahuata, French Polynesia 

On Thu, 14 May 2020 at 10:11, Randall <sailingalbedo@...> wrote:

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