Hi, I looked thru old posts, and I am hoping that someone can confirm this. I need to replace all three sheaves. The main seems straight forward, but the spin halyards a little trickier.
We do a windward takedown to the companionway w/ the kite, and the spin halyard binds on the take downs - Heavy air and light air. And, I don't mean a little binding. It is hard to pull it down. I am guessing the problem is with the sheave. However it does not bind at all if you pull down on the halyard in front of the mast...
This is what I pulled from old posts:
The forward sheaves are the same diameter as the main halyard sheaves. On Rhapsody these are riveted in.
Main Halyard Sheaves - Aluminum - Masthead has 2 Sheaves - New Style Sheave - Heavy-duty w/ integral bushing K-198-7AB4 $ 37.00
So if I buy 3 of theses and drill out the rivets holding the spin halyard sheaves in place, I should be able to replace the spin halyard sheaves and rivet them back in??
Does anyone have any other ideas what our problem may be if not the sheaves??
Thanks, Chris
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A year after I got my replacement box at Wickford consignment ... I saw several others still buried in a box of stainless parts. Although the original box is overkill, the holes for the pins wear and some of the rivets that hold the box also have to be drilled out and replaced.
In my case I got the replacement box as I was short on time so didn't have the time to take out, figure out what to do, and then get that done.
I figure I have at least 20 years left on the replacement box ... which was new, but at least 25 years old when I got it from Wickford a couple of years ago.
While we were at it we ran the second spin halyard just because the original box had that extra sheave.
For that matter you may be able to just get away with rerouting the spin halyard into the lower spin halyard slot.
We use it for peeling ... something the kids like to do to keep occupied on light wind days.
Main halyard shims are easy to do mine were pinned in place The Shive box is best worked on on the bench there are a total of 8 shives in the box two for each halyard they are held in place with roll pins which are easy to drive out with a drift pin
I went down to Hall Rigging and got replacements off the rack
I got the halyard box rebuild kit from rig rite. They threw in the sheave pins, but I'm not sure how to make the new ones stay in the box. I figure I can drill out the old pins or drive them out, but Don't I need to 'peen' the ends somehow? I tried calling rig rite but they were no help. The pins have a small concavity in each end. Thanks!
#185 Mango Madness
Re: Spin Sheave Replacement
[Re: Erik]
#16365 07/07/1508:14 AM07/07/1508:14 AM
all you need to do is drive out the old ones with a punch ( make sure its smaller that the hole in the box) then drive the new roll pins in they will stay in place with no issues
If the new pins feel a bit loose, you can pein them in using a ball pein hammer. Takes a helper and three hammers unless you're more dexterious than I am. Put one hammer (smallish) in a vise, ball end up, locate the concavity over the ball, lay another on the other end and hit the face with a wood or leather mallet. Don't use another hammer or you could chip them. DO wear safety glasses! :Doug #207
Ok, I finally worked up the nerve to climb up the mast to rebuild the halyard box. A couple sheaves were frozen and the second spin halyard sheave wasn't there. Not as easy as I had hoped. I rigged up a solo climbing setup with ascenders. Six time up and down the mast, a climbing harness is not a good idea, it's not built for comfort like an actual bosun's seat. The screws came out ok, I was afraid they'd be seized, the threads were all a bit worn down though and when I put it back together, one of the 10 holes stripped. There's gotta be a better solution than stainless hardware screwed into aluminum. Hopefully It will hold until I can pull the mast next year.
The pins for the sheaves were not press-fit as others have reported. The ends were peened over and try as hard as I could, I was unable to peen the replacement ones from rig-rite down as short as the original ones. And one of the pins for the sheaves is located slightly under the flange making access nearly impossible. I thought I had it pretty good, went all the way back up the mast and the box wouldn't fit in because the pin ends were sticking out too far. I ended up using a grinder to cut the ends down nearly flush, that left a bit of a 'rivet' end to keep the pin in place. fortunately there's no lateral forces on the pins.
As I have a roller furler, I moved the second jib halyard into the second spinnaker slot. I had thought about running another halyard so I could have 2 of each, but I couldn't find a good spot on the mast to cut yet another hole for the exit. I'm leery of having the holes not staggered enough.
Are there replacement sheave options? As in, is there anything new in cutting edge sheave technology or are the ones from rig rite the only game in town?
It is raining again here in Oregon so I got after another project inspecting sheaves and connecting pins on the mast. The main halyard was fine with the exception that the pin being used didn't match the sheave, so I drilled for the larger 5/16" pin and installed it. Then I went to the sheave box and as much as anything else I was curious if there was going to be corrosion from contact between the box and the mast and was happy to see that wasn't a problem. Then I noticed that the small sheave at the back was was wallowing out its holes and the pin was fused in the sheave. Reading this thread it isn't clear to me if the pins are supposed to be a friction fit with the sheave and the pins rotate in the housing, or if they are supposed to be fixed in place by the peening of the pin ends and the sheaves rotate on the pin. Since this hole is now wallowed out peening a new pin would not be effective anymore.
This sheave is spinning freely and likely not going to cause a problem in its current condition, but if there is an easy fix now would be the time to do it.
Bill K. is right about Rig-Rite being the OE game in town. Before I was waylaid for a while, I was looking to see what Zephyrweks ( https://www.zephyrwerks.com/ ) had to offer. When I get the mast down this fall, I am going to talk to them about replacement sheaves.