I tried to grease one of our lewmar winches without removing it from the boat, but that of course is not possible with an older Lewmar 40 winch like ours.
So I took all four winches off of the boat, and brought them home. But they don't just come apart, you have to use a hammer, and I went about it the wrong way the first time around. So here is how I did it, when I finally figured it out.
I have no pictures of how to remove the drum, but you just remove the coil washer at the very top, and the drum comes right off. Then you loosen all the nuts down below, and jam a wood chisel under it, a little here and a little there, finally it loosens up.
And then you have this:
An axel for the two gears, that needs to be driven out, since it is not fastened with anything. Make sure you have like 15 mm free space under the winch. Give it a few carefull bangs with the hammer. Use some sort of rod to avoid hitting the axel and everything else with the hammer.
The axel comes loose when driven 10 mm out of its placement. And can be pulled the rest of the way out with your fingers. Note the little grooves in the lower 10 mm of the axel, they keep it in place. (Well the grooves can hardly be seen in this picture, but if you get a little closer, then maybe).
Just kidding! Here you see the grooves. They make the axel sit real hard in the hole. My mistake was to drive the axel the wrong way out. I had to pound the groovy part all the way throught both of the gears, and the upper hole as well. Silly right?
After removing the small axel, the gears fall out by themselves, if you aren't carefull.
Turn the winch up side down, and remove the locking coil washer with a little screwdriver. The coil washer has a beginning, so you have to push the coils washer around to have the beginning, or the opening, at the right place for the screwdriver to get behind it, and twist the upper end of it out, and up.
Finally the happy camper is awarded for his consistent fumbling.
A fixed washer that has a little notch to avoid rotation has to be removed as well, but sometimes it is easier to remove the main axel first. If you do so be gentle, the fixed washer may be stuck in the groove cut in the main axel, for the coil washer to lock into.
Turn the winch upside up, while holding everything together with your hands. Then pull out the main axel.
After this everything else comes apart like legos. or easier.
In this case the whinch was nicely cleaned before taking the pictures. Expect everything to be greasy, and dirty. Unless the winch was serviced within the last couple of years, then maybe it is only greasy.
I read somewhere to clean everything in kerosene (dansk: petroleum) and then again using benzine (dansk: rense benzin). Maybe someother degreaser can be used. Then everything must have a coat of grease, and it should be winch grease specially made for the purpose. I used a tube of old Lewmar winch grease that came with the boat. Put it all back together, and enjoy a winch that should be easier to work with.
Happy cleaning, and kind regards to all of you. Jesper Milling
