One of my jib winches (Lewmar Ocean 52/54) has a squeak that developed after I stripped it, soaked off the old grease, re-greased, and reassembled it. This particular winch was almost frozen in place and was the first I tackled when I started my winches marathon when the boat went up on the hard this fall. When I first removed the drum and spindle the entire affair was slathered in a thick white grease which from a can of stuff found on the boat was a high end lithium product but not a specific "winch grease". The stuff had turned to paste and the winch would not turn by hand. Ok ,so now I cleaned the entire assembly and used the proper amount of Lewmar real grease, and everything worked fine and smoothly, until two-three weeks latter.

Two-three weeks latter I gave the winch a hand spin while just sitting in the cockpit under the shrinkwrap. Nice. But at one point in the 360 degree rotation a squeak is heard. Its only at this one point. Otherwise the winch works fine.

Today I took the winch apart again and looked carefully at all parts. Nothing looks bent, everything is nicely coated with a small amount of grease and I cant find out whats making this noise. Maybe this is why this one winch was so greased up to begin with by the PO--who really spend hours doing boat maintenance as a therapy, I think. Maybe he couldn't find the squeak so greased it until it went away? What could it be?

When I dissembled the winch the first time the pawls and springs looked just fine-so I did not change them.