Quick windlass maintenance

[Elcano]

Hi,

did my windlass maintenance yesterday and found some corrosion on the base plate and on the bottom side of the drum.

What is your impression of the corrosion? How bad is it? How often do you clean and regrease your windlass?

Thanks for your opinions.

[puravida35]

Interested in hearing what others say. I have similar corrosion on my Quick windlass.

[ohana]

From your piccies, your corrosion does not look too bad - mine (2012 so439) is worse but winch still works ok.  I removed the winch from the boat a couple of years ago to check it all out, and filled and faired some of the worst corrosion with some epoxy. My biggest concern is the corrosion round the shaft seal and top bearing, once that deteriorates badly water will get into shaft bearings which will need immediate attention. The lower gearbox and motor was fine. 

there are some good articles and YouTube videos for these winches, worth taking a look at. One piece of good advice was to check where the chain drops away from the gypsy through the top casting, at this point the top casting has a small ridge which prevents water draining properly - recommendation is to file this ridge away.