Winch rebuilding

[Greg]

As I sat, shivering, looking out the window at a snowy vista and trying to work up some enthusiasm for anything boat-related, I thought of the winches. The two sheet winches are off the boat(along with all the other hardware) and accessible and warm and I'd really like to rebuild and grease them. I know they leave a bit to be desired size-wise and don't represent cutting edge technology, but I think they are worth keeping. I have two handles and they all seem to work, however they are all gunky and nasty looking...not at all what I would like. I've read about winch repair in several books, but none of them seem to have dealt with these. Don Casey advises to unscrew from the top, but on my winches, the screw that I presume is the one I need to remove is covered by the pawls and the spring that actuates them. How do I get these things apart? They are, I think, original equipment...South Coast? Anybody got the answers I need?

[Greg]

Here's the pic in a more reasonable size

[Hull376]

Boy, they don't look like my Southcoasts. See pic.

[Greg]

Maybe they're Merrimans (Merrimen?)...anyway, I still can't figure out how to open them without damaging the springs and pawls. Are the stainless steel bases original or are they after-market?

[Tony G]

Greg
I can sympathize with you on the cold!! That pic doesn't look like the view from the top of our South Coast winches either. I'm not an expert on winches but here's what I'd do...Get yourself in a clean, well lit, preferably small room,( springs do fly) and stabilize the winch so you only have to deal with the moving parts you set in motion. Compress and remove the spring that appears to span the gap over the screw head slot. Once you find where it has stopped bouncing, usually in the opposite direction you last heard it hit something, try to back those small blocks out of their location. They may have coiled springs under them that actuate the prawls-I dunno. Then you should be able to loosen the large screw that holds the rest of the flying parts! Winches seem to be pretty simple to service they just require a light tounch to keep things from flying around.
I've never seen a stainless winch mount on ANY boat or boat pic. The cataloges we have only sell wood pads and bronze mounts. Must be custom! Best of luck, Tony G



p. s. the really big question I have is the glass in the upper right corner half empty or half full?

p.s. p.s. daytime high temp today is 15 below zero and wind chill temps around 50 below-I'm wondering why we do it.

[SkipperJer]

A wise mechanic taught me to use a large, clear plastic bag as a spring-catcher when working on winch-like objects that use spring clips. Sometimes I wrap the bag around the work and just apply tools from the outside through the plastic. This will tear the plastic but flying things usually still get caught. If the bag is big enough you can work with your hands and tools inside the bag. Dry cleaning bags are large but flimsy. I found a stack of heavier guage clear bags a few years ago that I've been hoarding ever since. One way or the other it beats cleaning the garage to find the wayward part.

[Greg]

Well, I got it apart...no flying springs or escaping ball bearings. In fact, there are no bearings at all, just the very smoothly machined, bronze mating surfaces. I am pleasantly surprised. Tne grease inside is remarkably clean and the guts of the thing shows far less wear than I expected. It's nice to be PLEASANTLY surprised for a change...after a while you get used to finding ugly things.

Tony, it's not quite as cold here as you have it, but cold enough. Makes me wish for Spring more than ever. Went down to the slip the other day. No open water anywhere...nothing but white, cold, crunchy-style water. Not inviting at all!

About the bases...are mine unique in the annals of Ariel-dom? How cool! They're a little undistinguished, not like the nice bronze ones, but they seem sturdy.

[drm901]

I have similar SS bases - but certainly not the same as these here. Definely some custom, quality work.

[marymandara]

FWIW, SouthCoast winches were manufactured by Merriman...the little trident stamp is the merriman trademark, BTW. I think that at some point SouthCoast was either someone else's company or a stand-alone firm...some of the winches do say "SouthCoast" on 'em, and I've also seen ones with both the southcoast name and the Merriman stamp.

Dave