Lewmar 43 winch- 1977. Need Help

[fiveonred]

If anyone out there has or is familiar with the old, 1977 era, NST 2 speed winch,
I need help with service/ maintenance instruction. These winches do not appear to come apart the way more modern ones do, ie. every part comes up through the top. I want to clean them and apply new grease but it looks like I can't disassemble without removing the entire winch from it's location.
Any and all help gratefully accepted.

Thanks, Fran

[Coyote]

How difficult is it to remove? If it isn't bad, I might recommend it. Parts for those are increasingly hard to get and you might want to do it the first time in a place where parts can't jump overboard. Say in your garage over a box.

The first time I took a winch apart one of my bearings jumped overboard. It was an expensive lesson.

[delatbabel]

Agree with Coyote. Remarkably the internals haven't changed much since the 77 era. I had 3 Lewmar 30s of different vintages mounted horizontally on my mast and a surprising number of the parts were interchangeable. However you absolutely need to get the winch off and standing vertically on a stable flat surface before you consider servicing it.

[Erict3]

Went through the same battle a few months ago on an L3 Lewmar. Lack of lube made it impossible to remove the center shaft without removing the winch and driving the shaft out. Sand paper and proper greasing has it back to working.

[fiveonred]

Thanks so much for the suggestion. I have one of the smaller Lewmars removed so I'll try to get the shaft out. The 2 43s will not be easy to remove...so hard to get at the attachment points. I need to find a very small limber person.

[fiveonred]

It's very difficult to remove. The attachment point is in a very tight spot but somehow we'll have to get it out to service it. I've done the easy ones so now onto the 43s.
Thanks for the reply.

[fiveonred]

Thanks for the reply and the easy ones are done. Now, onto the 43s.

[roverhi]

IIRC the NST Lewmar 43 winches have a slip ring at the top of the shaft. Carefully pry out the slip ring, it's its made of two or three layers of SS. The ends of the ring layers have a small cut out that you can hook with a knife blade or similar tool. Pull it out of the groove on the shaft and lift it out around the shaft. Once the slip ring is off, the drum lifts straight off. Be careful not to lose the pawls and pawl springs