Lofrans horizontal gear play

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kowens
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Lofrans horizontal gear play

Post by kowens »

Hi Everyone,

I just bought a used Lofrans Royal manual windlass. It was a bit stiff so I took it apart for cleaning and found
the horizontal gears to have excessive plan. They basically rattle around on their plastic bushings.

How much play should they have?

Thanks,
Ken.
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atomvoyager
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Re: Lofrans horizontal gear play

Post by atomvoyager »

Maybe you've seen this page on Lofrans Royal windlass repair:

https://atomvoyages.com/articles/improv ... air-1.html

When I took mine apart there was some play in the gears but nothing that made an impact on operation. You might reassemble and test under load. Chances are there is no problem. If you do have a problem you can try to identify what is worn that is causing the play. If the aluminum gear teeth are worn you might need a tig weld and grind or machine them to fit better. If it is loose bushings then you can order generic delrin or other plastic bushings online from various suppliers. I've heard that Lofrans in Italy does not supply parts here in the states, according to someone who tried to contact them a few years ago, but you might try, if needed.
kowens
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Re: Lofrans horizontal gear play

Post by kowens »

Hi,

The slop seems to be in the plastic bushings and as you suggest, I saw them online at p2marine. The windlass is also stiff on the line side of the winch. Check out the casting flaw in the gear on that side. They want $84 for a new gear. Think I'll get one of those too. Is this gear just pressed into the ring that holds the break handle?
rsz_1img_20190205_163619.jpg
.

Thanks,
Ken
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atomvoyager
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Re: Lofrans horizontal gear play

Post by atomvoyager »

I didn't fully disassemble the drum side since I had no problem there so not sure about the assembly of that. Keep in mind that even when new there is a surprising amount of friction or resistance when you crank the handle even with no load on it. I guess it's just the spring loaded gears. There should be very little friction on the bushings though so make sure you have good clearance and grease them up for waterproofing. A canvas cover when on passage would probably help too.
kowens
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Re: Lofrans horizontal gear play

Post by kowens »

Hi Everyone,

I took the drum side of the Lofrans Royal Windlass apart. The secret is to use a puller to remove the disk that holds the handle. There is a snap ring behind this disk preventing the vertical gear from being removed. It is not clear from the Lofrans website which side of the housing this snap ring is one. Its on the outside! So do not attempt to drive the vertical gear inwards.

Another thing to watch out for is the key that mates the handle disk and the vertical gear; It is attached to the handle disk! The key is peened over on the bottom and the handle disk is peened over on the top to retain the key.

In my case the handle disk and the vertical gear were frozen together. When the handle disk final moved on the shaft the key remained and was dragged past several of the peening locations.

I did not know which side the snap ring was on. So I both tapped on the vertical gear and pried on the handle disk. I could only see the snap ring when I got the handle disk removed.

Ken.
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