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Proper way to mount winches

sailingdeacon

Member III
Proper way to mount winches?

I would appreciate confirmation or disagreement with the following problem on my Barient 27 winch.

After the bearings in my 1987 E34, Barient 27 winch failed, I contacted Florida rigging. They were extremely helpful and supplied steel bearings instead of the delrin (they are slightly wider so the spacer will have to be ground down.)

After reviewing the mounting of the winches, they said my port jib sheet winch had been installed incorrectly and would cause problems under very heavy loads. They said these winches (others too I wonder??) must be positioned so that the outboard gear (the one that pertrudes) must be in the same positon as to where the genoa sheet first makes contact with the drum. We determined that both starboard and port winch had been installed exactly alike so that looking down on them, the outboard gears were to the outside of the cockpit. This would mean that the starboard winch was installed correctly (the sheet comes to the drum on the outside), but the port winch was not (since the sheet comes to the inboard side of the drum -the gear was 180 degrees away from the point where sheet makes contact.

I have the instructions for Barient selftailiong 17, 21, 24 and 27. Only the 17 mounting instructions make this point. The instructions for the 17 says "Note: Ensure that the winch is mounted to the deck so as the drum drive pinion (4) is as near as possible to where the line first makes contact with the drum Fig.2."

I should add that the "shaft" over which the bearings fit has a small groove worn just above the top of the original delrin bearings one one side. So this tells me the forces are not balanced.

Do I really need the 27 mounted the same way? I suspect so since only those port bearings fail. Comments please....

To fix this problem requires that I unbolt the winch, fill in holes and redrill any needed. (This attachment part of the winch has holes which are not equally spaced around the mount)
 
Last edited:

Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
It's been many a year since I installed a couple of secondaries on my prior boat, but.... I do remember that they had a specified mounting orientation regarding the load. Also, there was one side of the base that needed to be toward the outside on those particular models because that was where the water drain channel was in the base casting.

Loren
 

ccorcoran

Member II
As the gears grind...

Doug,

Great bit of detective work. I had my jib sheet winches apart for check and relube 18 months ago and I don't recall the location of the gears. I'll go down this weekend and check the orientation of the small gear in relation to where the jib sheet first meets the drum (port and starboard). At least we'll have an idea if this is an Ericson epidemic or just a fluke. Thanks for bringing this to everyone's attention;forewarned is forearmed!
 

sailingdeacon

Member III
final solution (maybe)

I received stainless steel bearings from Florida Rigging but they were too wide and would have required reducing the width of the spacer. I called ARCO (difficult because of his heavy accent and apparentl use of internet phone facility) and Bruno was extremely helpful. He knows Barient! He, like Florida, warned me about the proper installation - and the port winch is definitely installed wrong. He went on to say that while the proper install is to have the outbard gear adjacent to where to sheet comes to the drum, it is ok to be as much as 45 degrees off clockwise. (I recall Florida saying 5 degrees) That allowance does not help me because the winch base must be turned and one more hole drilled - and one covered. No way to take advantage of the existing 5 holes. Also,no way to simply turn the winch around over the attaching base due to the asymetrical design. Drilling an outboard hole (holes are not evenly spaced) may cause some problems since the new hole will be right where the underdeck wooden strip is for attachment of the overhead vinyl. Chisel at hand!!

He went on to say that in earlier days steel bearings were used but caused problems so delrin replace them. ALso in earlier days, the importance of positioning was not recognized and my problem showed up with a big genoa in racing conditions. Just when Archangel thought is was retirement time, she was put into real work!

He also said that in early days, steel bearings were used but if one has the aluminum drum (mine are black aluminum) then the interior of the drum is worn badly. So the original delrin that I have is what I need. I still give kudos to Florida because they make little off these and simply try to be of service.

While checking to see if your winches are mounted properly check your bearings -especially the port winch. (There have been various bearings and different colors) Some of the delrin rollers actually become frozen and will not turn well or at all. Also if black aluminum anodizing, the interior of the drums should still be black, not worn off. My bearings were so bad that a groove was forming on the shaft on one side due to the tilt.

Ah, boat work is never done - even with a superb Ericson. Now if I can avoid the next hurricane.....
 
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