Trying to remove a winch

[Mary Mac]

I got a couple new jib winches for my 1978 Cal 3-34 and I wanted to swap out my old ones. I started on the port side by crawling in the lazarette and removed the bolts. The thing is stuck on tight! I got my impact driver and loosened the bolts. Then, I connected a line from it across to the other winch and tried prying it off, but it would not budge. Anyone removed their winches before?

[Capn ken]

Patience and persistence ! A flat bladed putty knife 3 -4 inches wide . Stout enough to hit with a mallet . And wear hand and eye protection!

[Mary Mac]

Thanks Capn Ken.

[rcvesselstyn]

It looks like you need a different approach. The proper way to remove a winch would be 1. Disassemble the winch. 2. Remove the machine screws/ bolts. 3. If necessary soak the base plate in adhesive remover. It looks like from your photograph that you just removed the nuts off of the machine screws. Depending on the installation those screws might be threaded through the fiberglass and will hold that winch on tight even without nuts. The only way to remove those screws is to disassemble the top of the winch. The smart way to disassemble a winch on a boat in the water is to find a cardboard box large enough to surround the winch and allow you to work on it. You cut a hole in the center of the bottom of the box that is just slightly smaller than the diameter of the winch. Push the box down over the winch before you start disassembling. Those little parts: roller bearings, Springs , and gears are guaranteed to do a triple spring backflip into the harbor if you don't have the box around the winch. When you've removed all the parts except for the base plate try unscrewing the machine screws that go through the cockpit combing. Probably the combination of glue and time will make this very difficult. So try a different method. After making sure you have completely emptied the box of all little parts, head down below with a mallet. Screw the nuts lightly back onto the machine screws and tap the screws out of the fiberglass from below. You should be able to unscrew them once you get them started. After removing the bolts it's quite possible you'll be able to snap the base plate off of the fiberglass. If not ,then plug the holes from down below with rubber stoppers or candle wax or even silicone caulk. Put something underneath the holes where the solvent might drip. Head back up top side and put the adhesive solvent in the machine screw holes, it won't take much. Let it sit for a good long time adding solvent as needed. If there is a bead of glue around the base plate you can mask around the winch and paint some solvent on the bead also. Good luck! Hope it goes well.

[Capn ken]

Well said!

[Mary Mac]

Thank you for the excellent explanation! I will try that.

[Capn ken]

That is great advice and it should work out well just be patient

[Mary Mac]

Thank you, everyone. It wasn't too big of a deal to remove them after taking them apart. I'm about to start with installing the new ones now while I wait for the boatyard to cut my new piece of hydrotek for my bulkhead.

[davenrino]

Just in case you need height adjusment as I did for lifeline clearance for the handle -
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GO ... UTF8&psc=1

[Mary Mac]

Nice find, thank you. These are pretty close to the same size as the old ones, but I haven't tried the handle yet.