Winch Minor Service 14 October 2006

I don't know when my winches were last serviced, but they were becoming quite difficult to turn by hand and did not spin freely. They are a two speed, self tailing Barient 23, the largest winches on my boat and used to control the jib/genoa sheets.

I have tried to document the process with several photos and only as a guide for someone who hasn't serviced a winch before and might find it useful. (wish someone had done this for me)

If you are as clueless as me, then hopefully this will be of some assistance as to what to expect when you pull the winch apart. It really isn't as hard as you might think and I do recommend getting some professional advice and using the photos and process below only as a rough guide as I believe some brands of winches vary greatly.

Tools: small flat screwdriver, shifting spanner, kerosene, small hard bristle brush, bucket, small container, winch grease, lots of paper towels and finally something to polish with.

Below is a photo of the Barient winch before servicing.

The first step is to remove the circular clip which holds the winch body on. You can see the edge of the clip in the photo below. This can be gently pushed out and removed from the winch. It might be worth having a spare on hand in case you break one. If you are gentle you will not break the clip and it can be re used.

Once the clip is removed, the ring with the text on it (see photo above) can be removed. Once this is removed the entire housing can be lifted directly upward and off the main shaft of the winch. Be careful not to also bring the main bearings with the housing.

The main bearings remain on the main shaft and once the housing is removed the bearings can be lifted off the shaft. This model winch has two lots of bearings. The picture below shows them together, but they are actually 2 separate bearings.

This now leaves the main shaft and gears. My winches are mounted from the bottom with large bolts. These had to be removed to enable full access to the winch for cleaning.

and finally the winch on its own.

I started to clean the winch with a hard bristle brush and kerosene and finally placed the entire unit into a bucket of kerosene, working the brush into the cogs.

I also cleaned the outer housing. The photo below is the underside of the outer housing which was pretty dirty.

Below is a view from the bottom of the winch. You should turn all the cogs whilst cleaning with the brush to remove all the grease and dirt.

cleaning the main bearings

The cogs seem to be in excellent condition and came up pretty well when all the grease and grime was removed.

When everything was clean I applied Barlube which is a product manufactured by Barient specifically for their winches. I don't think Barient are in business anymore and this grease was on the boat. It seemed ok and was still the right consistency so I figured I would use it.

Now for the removal of the springs which keep the self tailing ring tight. I have no idea what they are called but they appear to adjust the tension between the top plate and the housing for tailing the sheet. I removed them to thoroughly clean the winch.

I may have to adjust the tension on the screws at some point in the future and will test them next time I'm sailing. I think they will be ok though as I tried to keep them as close to the setting they were prior to disassembly.

and a bit of a polish to the outer housing. There was a pretty bad build up in the little grooves in the photo below. I used a fine screw driver to scrape them out and finished off with a brush and kero.

and finally all cleaned, one of the main bearings. It came up like new.

The individual parts are covered with grease then re assembled in reverse order and the entire unit greased. I'm not sure how much grease is enough but I figured it's better to use more than less.

and finally completely re assembled. It works like a new winch now and spins easily by hand. An enormous improvement and about 1 hours work each.

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