Lewmar Ocean Electric winch gearbox/motor failure

[David Jade]

Today with a clunk one of our Lewmar electric winches seems to have broken itself or ripped itself apart. The entire gearbox and motor below deck now freely rotates around. The winch itself still works just fine though (manually). 

When it broke, the force from the motor caused the below deck gearbox and motor to break free and rotate and that ripped the control box off it's mount and twisted up all the wires and terminals. So it seems something broken inside the gearbox. Nothing works now of course, not even the motor seems to energize any longer.

I cannot figure out if there is a shear pin or something inside from looking at the manual. Or if that part of the winch (below deck gearbox) is even serviceable.  Hoping someone here knows. 

David

J/46 #19

[D. Scott Miller]

I had the same issue about five years ago and fixed it myself.  My recollection is that it can be readily disassembled from below deck—no need to remove the winch itself. 

 

If I recall correctly (it’s been a bunch of years)…

• Disconnect the wires from the winch.
• Remove the bolts holding the winch motor from the gearbox
• Drop the motor
• Maybe also drop the gearbox
• Figure out what broke—in my case, it was one or two (of the five) retaining bolts that sheared off (I don’t recall a shear pin!)
• Removing the motor and gearbox wasn’t hard
• Mostly, what I ended up doing was replacing the retaining bolts and replacing the actuator (or whatever it’s called)—the box with the electronics to control the motor.  I can probably find an invoice and part number for that electronic gizmo…I think the one that was installed on Resolute is no longer sold, but Lewmar does sell a suitable replacement. I think I ended up buying two…so I have a spare.  (I had to replace that circuit board and the box because, once the motor started spinning around, it wiped out the box (and the internal board). Sounds like you may have done the same.

 

I’ve attached the “Evo” manual, which is very similar to the ones installed on J/46s (see pp. 9-10). The electrical box for the Evo worked with my original Lewmar Ocean Electric winch.  If needed, I can try to track down the specific part number that I used.

 

Scott

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[David Jade]

Thanks, this is super helpful. It appears that those retaining bolts all sheared off for us too. I’ll get to disassembly when we get back. It’ll let you know if I need part numbers.

Thanks!

David                      _/)

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On Aug 27, 2025, at 9:53 AM, 'D. Scott Miller' via J/4X Owner's Group <j4x-owne...@googlegroups.com> wrote:



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<Lewmar Evo_Ocean Electric Winch B2303-iss14 (English).pdf>