The Aegir-Ran has eight Barient winches. Developed more than half a century ago, Barients were the first two-speed winches geared in both directions. At some point Lewmar bought Barient and most parts for the winches are no longer available. Our winches had not been serviced in some time and the primary 28 STS winches in particular were stiff and practically unusable. Winches are expensive and replacing the primaries would cost about $5000 a pop. so we set out to rebuild them. Unfortunately, the 28s were poorly designed with a bronze gear housing mounted on an aluminum base with stainless steel bolts. Electrolysis had practically fused the aluminum to the bronze. To make removing of the 28s for servicing even more complicated were six eight-inch bolts that passed through the hull. The bolts had been gooped in so it was impossible to simply unbolt the winches to remove them for servicing. The order of removal had to be the drum, followed by the gear housing, followed by the base. While it proved possible to disassemble the port 28 without much difficulty, it was clear that the 28 on the starboard side was in much poorer shape. While the drum could be removed, the four bolts that held the gear housing to the base were frozen. After soaking in Liquid Wrench for a day, only two of the bolts could be removed with a wrench. Eventually, two of the Allen bolt heads were stripped.
After three days of effort, the stripped bolts were eventually removed with an extractor using an impact winch.
After a day’s work, separating the housing from the base was eventually achieved by using a Dremel tool and a cutting wheel to create separation and a rubber mallet. The dirt in the base evidenced the winch had not been disassembled or properly maintenanced for decades.
Eventually, all five of the cockpit winches were removed and an assembly line was created to disassemble and clean the parts.
Using the aluminum foil and vinegar trick, it proved possible to polish the chrome to like-new condition.
Luckily, a pair of non-self-tailing Barient 28s were found on eBay that had STAINLESS STEEL bases.
After about nine days of work, the winches were reassembled and now operate like new.
