Hardware
Once I got the hardware home I wanted to start working on the winches. We have a total of eight of these expensive deck gems and I wanted to make sure that they where all in good shape with no broken gear teeth, bearings or pawls. I purchased Nigel Calder's book titled "Boatowner's Mechanical and Electrical Manual" If your restoring a boat this manual is a must. The section on winches helped me disassemble clean, lubricate and reassemble them.
I started with the two large Barient Stainless 20 winches made by Barlow/Barient. I removed the drum and pulled the roller bearings off the spindle assembly. I than soaked the entire assembly and bearings in a bucket of kerosene and used a tooth brush to remove the old grease. Allot of the oil and grease varnished over the metal but the kerosene eventually soften it up enough to brush it off.
Assembly before cleaning and after kerosene wash.
After cleaning the assembly in kerosene I wiped down the unit with a lint free cloth and further disassembled it down to individual parts. I used a wire brush on my grinder to further clean the parts except for the bearings, springs and pawls removing baked on grease and metal tarnish.
I re-assembled the winch being careful to place the ratchet gear in the right way up. The photo on the left shows the wrong way to place the ratchet gear in. The second photo below shows the correct way, the pawls are seated correctly. Barient also idiot proofs the assembly for people like me. You notice in the middle picture that they have machined a grove into one side of the ratchet gear so the stainless gear retainer plate fits in to cover the pawls (third photo). If you place the retainer plate over the wrong side of the ratchet gear you will not be able to fit the collar pin into the collar that holds the retainer plate and spindle assembly in place. Everything fits correctly without having to force anything in place. Nigel Calder says in his book that "when reassembling a winch nothing needs forcing
Wrong way ! Correct way Retainer plate in place with pin
I lightly greased the gears and spindle assembly with white lithium grease (found at the tool department of Home Depot) and I used light weight machine oil (3 In One )on all of the pawls and springs. Using grease on the pawls and springs will attract dirt and salt possibly causing them to bind up.
Apply a light coating of winch grease and spread it out evenly
All of the digital pictures I take of the boat serve two purposes; one helps illustrate this website and the other helps me to remember how to put the darn thing back together! Just watch that you don't get too much grease on your digital camera.