The Plastic Classic Forum, your free and in-depth resource for information on re/building classic sailboats. ... Be sure to visit / join our sister site at sailFar.net! ... And don't forget to check out Atom's Virtual Home Port! ...
We have a Simpson & Lawrence manual windless. I am trying to remove the Gypsy after taking the grease fitting and locking plate off, put even with a puller, the gypsy is not moving.
Has anyone here done this before? I do not want to apply any more torque to the puller without knowing if there is anything else like spring clips or set screws holding the gypsy on. By the assembly drawing it looks like it should just pull away from the clutch cone. The rope drum on the other side of the shaft came right off.
My second question is, does anyone know were to get a replacement gypsy for 5/8 high test chain instead of the 3/8 BBB chain we are using?
I can't tell you if there is anything else mechanically holding the gypsy, but I can tell you a story about a winch drum that wouldn't come off. I found after examining the thing every which way from Wednesday, that there couldn't be anything else mechanically holding it. So, I used the brute force puller method and it came off. I found that the center spindle of the winch was hollow and had apparently collected water that did not drain through a blocked weep hole in the winch base. With several freeze-thaw cycles, the spindle had expanded substantially as you can see in this picture, and thus prevented the drum's removal:
In order to fix it, I made up a simple roller that I used with a pipe cutter on my lathe (like metal spinning) and that fixed it, although the bronze is likely a little work hardened.
Not sure about the smaller gipsy; I was looking at a Sea Tiger on e-Bay that had a 3/8" gipsy and before bidding looked around for a smaller gipsy with no success. That being said, I don't remember if I was considering a 5/16" or only a 1/4".
Here's a link to the owner's manual for it, if you don't have one:
Rachel -
You sure are good at finding stuff. There is also a great PDF file of the entire windlass there that should identify any potential unseen locking parts at http://www.slspares.co.uk/Seatiger.pdf
Bruce,
That makes sence to me, although the hollowed out shaft that goes thru the gypsy should be filled with marine grease, if any water got into that cavity and froze, I could see it expanding the outside of the shaft and binding the gypsy. In that case I need a bigger wheel puller, LOL.
Rachel,
I think our windless is simular but not the same as the sea tiger by looking at the manuals. But the gypses just may be the same as ours. I need to call them though, it seems all their specs and prices are english.
I love your comment about manual windlesses, I will take one over an electric anyday.
Thank you all, I love this sight, you all are being very helpfull as we stress out getting Scout back together. I hope I can help others at times here, as you all have been helping me.
I have the same windlass. There is should be nothing else to remove to get the gypsy off the shaft. I think you should be good to go with some heat from a propane torch and a large puller to get this off. I used a loaner for Auto Zone to get my rope gypsy off.
I think you've got an S-L Hyspeed 510 there - chain drive and oil bath? It sounds like you have the parts diagram for it. I have a file that includes the whole manual (three more pages) on a .pdf I can send you. From the file I have, they don't list a bigger gypsy than the one you've got.
Here's my Seatiger 555 - refinishing it and fixing the grease leak are projects, but the gypsy looks bigger to me. It's waiting for me to get a bigger boat, so if you wanted to swap windlasses, or maybe if my gypsy fits on yours or something...
I had to rock the gypsy a bit to break some suction on the clutch cone. I might have even "tapped it" a little bit with a hammer, but then it popped right off. Chances are there's some salt in there, so a high-pressure freshwater rinse might not hurt?
Here's what it will look like when it's repainted - I have an article somewhere on how to prep and finish it:
No, I haven't done it yet, I just saved that photo for inspiration.
I had seen a great article on refinishing the windlass, but I can't find it anymore. From memory, he sanded off the worst of the old paint and then etched the surface with (something). He may have used a primer, then he finished it off with epoxy paint.
It was such a good article it's worth looking for, so I'll let you know if I find it again.
