Service, service, service!

5/24/2015

To stay on the water longer, keep your equipment functioning the way it should do. We recommend every season that furlers and head swivels should be stripped and cleaned, spindles should be crack tested, pin holes checked for elongation and new bearings fitted with new grease.

At the recent Volvo Ocean Race stopover in Auckland, we saw a huge difference between well maintained furlers and those that had received little love on the long ocean stretches. Teams which had a good maintenance schedule ultimately spent less on their equipment, as the only thing needing to be done was a clean, regrease and reassemble. Poor maintenance resulted in not only needing new bearings but in some cases, new spindles and housings as well.

Pictured here, above and below, is a poorly serviced unit from one of the Volvo Ocean Race teams. When we collected it for servicing, the bearing was in pieces and ceased into the housing. This furler had done 15,000 NM with no servicing. In these conditions we would expect the furlers to be checked and re-greased every 5,000NM !

Talk to one of the team today about scheduling in a service for your KZ parts.

6 Comments

George Morris

8/23/2016 01:57:15 pm

The Inshore furler on my Weta has done a lot less than 15000 miles but the bearings have become very rough. No one told me I had to grease them - how do I do that?

James link

6/19/2017 12:37:51 pm

Hi George,

Im sorry your question has gone un-noticed here.

If you require any assistance please contact myself at [email protected]

Tim Corcoran

6/18/2017 08:34:03 pm

Same question as above on my Weta--no answer posted from you folks! I've got the unit in my hand, but can't make out how to access the bearings, even after removing from the housing.

James link

6/19/2017 12:36:15 pm

Hi Tim,

The thrust bearing is located on the spindle, which is the central shaft of the furler. This can be accessed by removing the top fork nut and also the bottom end fittings off your furler.
Once the spindle is removed there will be 2 support bearings, one under the top fork and one in the bottom of the furler hub, these are press fit into place. They may need a bearing puller or small pin punch to lever out. If you wish to just re grease while the bearings are in place, use a small pick to remove the plastic ring covering the bearing, fill the bearing with grease and then push the plastic ring back into place. Depending on the age and size of your furler the disassembly steps may vary.

If you have more questions please contact myself at [email protected]

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7/12/2022 09:15:49 am

Teams which had a good maintenance schedule ultimately spent less on their equipment, as the only thing needing to be done was a clean, regrease and reassemble. Thank you for the beautiful post!

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9/22/2022 01:49:30 pm

When we collected it for servicing, the bearing was in pieces and ceased into the housing. Thank you for taking the time to write a great post!

Service, service, service!

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