General windlass Q

[390Express]

General windlass Q:

Took the motor off and pulled the front cover, it still seems jammed up. I can’t turn the gearbox with a manual hand crank, not even a little bit. How would so go about inspecting the gearbox and getting a look at what’s going on inside? There’s a spring clip, but I can’t see much else. Pics below:

[Midnightsun]

In the second picture where you see the main shaft there is a circlip you can actually see in the picture. Remove that and the gearbox should slide downward and away (it does on mine). At this point the gear box is disconnected entirely and if this frees up the rope then the trouble is in the gear box.

[390Express]

Source of the post In the second picture where you see the main shaft there is a circlip you can actually see in the picture. Remove that and the gearbox should slide downward and away (it does on mine). At this point the gear box is disconnected entirely and if this frees up the rope then the trouble is in the gear box.

Thanks MNS, sounds like you've been into a windlass gearbox before. I'm expecting to find a little rust or corrosion in there jamming everything up, but no broken gears. It seems locked up from non-use. The boat sat for 3 seasons without the windlass being used. I'm having the electric motor rebuilt now, apparently it was only operating on two brushes, and wasn't making the power it should have.

What will I be getting into if I leave the C-clip in, and unscrew the allen head screws above the C-clip? Would that be another way to separate it? or will that split the gear box in half, and dump oil everywhere?

[Midnightsun]

Now that you mention it, mine did have a large nut on top of the gear box as opposed to 4 allen screws below like on yours, obviously a different model (Maxwell Freedom 800). I will make an assumption that the gear box is held in place via circlip and 4 bolts and once it drops down the gear box is intact just like on mine. No oil, no mess.

[Tireless]

From looking at the pics, it appears that you have a Maxwell windless. I removed mine as the crank case, worm gear, was stripped. Apparently you should service and replace the gear oil in the crank case every three years. My issue was, the oil leaked out and the gears stripped. To fix this, or to service it, I recommend removing the on deck hardware down to the mounting plate. This will expose 4 bolts that are located under your gypsy. You can remove those bolts, as they hold the crank case to the mounting plate. You can then remove the C-Clip and the crank case can be removed from the shaft by pulling down. If it doesn't drop down you may have to remove the shaft with the crank case. I wouldn't remove the allen screws as this will create more work. Remove it and work on a bench.