Today, was a productive day at the boat. I finally persuaded my brother to come give me a hand installing the 2 Lewmar 30 ST (2 speed) winches. I was surprised at how easy the 2 old Lewmar 10 winches were to disassemble. It was a simple matter of prying up the thin split ring and easily removing it. Then the top cover plate (the chrome "Lewmar" doughnut ring) comes up easily and then the drum follows. The small black ring and the 2 roller drums followed by a black spaces all follow easily but messy. That leaves the gear post and base. This part takes 2 people; one above deck and one below. On the starboard side, the easy side, the 2nd person in in the quarter birth with a wocket wrench and loosens the nuts (5) and removes them and the flat washers (surprise there was NO backup plate on what I am sure were the standard main winches). The post side was a bit more difficult and it ment my svelt brother slipping down into the port locker and reaching as far forward (way forward of the 2 marine batteries, mine are on a custom shelf) and removing the nuts and washers. Once the screws come up, the entire post will lift off (I used an old winch handle inserted in normal position) and just lift off. Clean the remaing deck area was next. And then I enlarged the old holes slightly. I backed the holes with packing tape and then filled them with marine epoxy. Once that cures, I marked the places for the new holes and drilled them. I cut a backing plate for each side. Then placed the plate in position while the topside person drilled the first hole, and placed one of the screws in (we got all new screws because the old ones were too short, because of the backing plate). We then drilled the other 4 holes per side and then again removed those screws. We added a liberal coating of 3M 4200 to the base area. Then the below decks person held the plate in place while we aligned it with a long, thin screwdriver while the new Lewmar base/post/gear assembly was held in place. Then the screws and then tightning of all screws and large oversize washers and nuts. I wiped clean all the excess 4200 and then reassembled the winches. Job done, about 2 hours (plus a trip to the West Marine store for Screws and other sundries).
Anyone need a psir of Lewmar 10 winches? Joe McCary Aeolus II. #4795, West River, MD www.aeoluswestriver.net joe at photoresponse dot com
