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Re: Outhaul Gearbox Removal

John Hollamby <annejohnholl@...>
 

Hello Tom, Having just been through this problem I have a few pointers. If a bolt has sheared off take the box to a machine shop and get them to drill it out and insert a Helicoil which will be better than the original. My outhaul was noisy but the furler was silent.The bronze gear was the cause and needed replacement. Remember that these gearboxes/motors are of industrial quality and only the bronze wheel needs to be changed along with the oil seals because the outhaul carries very heavy loads when we abuse it. The total daily use is perhaps a couple of minutes and thus the bearings should be hardly run in. The wheel in the furling box was as good as new.
When hammering out the drive shaft put supports between the mounting bracket and the boom to transfer the load. My suspicion is that the seizure is due to salt crystals forming between the shaft and the gearbox and it might be sensible to have a couple of thou skimmed off the bottom part of the shaft. However I have piled grease around the top of the box and put duct tape over the opening in the hope of keeping sea water out and will remove the shaft every six months in future.

Good luck with it, Anne and John, SM319

--- In amelyachtowners@..., "Thomas" <thomas.kleman@...> wrote:

I think I was reading too many of the recent posts on this site, but since I bought the boat a year ago and hadn't serviced the gearbox I decided this relatively cooler weekend (in Annapolis) was just the right time.

I was initially just going to remove the bottom panel to inspect grease level but I remembered a recommendation to remove the whole assembly periodically or it will seize up. When one of the retaining screws broke off during removal I knew it was going to be one of those projects.

Took off the lower half of gearbox but the sail handler axel was stuck fast in the gearbox. Used Corrosion-X, blowtorch, WD-40, 2 lb hammer,gear puller, and lots of technical advice from Richard Piller (who very fortunately resides 4 slips from me). No luck. Finally resorted to the "BeBe solution". Took the boom off, bought an 8-lb sledgehammer, put the boom upside down on blocks and wailed away. Finally got it out and reassembled everything. Beyond a few scuff marks on the boom, no damage. Had to use my spare gearbox while I figure out how to drill out the offending screw from the old one.

My boat is SM2K #422, a 2004, so it's not that old. I'm not in a place in my Amel ownership experience to offer much new technical advice (relative to the true experts on this site), but I think removing and greasing this axel every six months (which someone suggested last month) is very sage advice that I will be following religiously.

Tom and Kirstin
L'ORIENT
Super Maramu 2000 #422
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