nick jackson davit

Has anybody cleaned and greased a Nick Jackson davit brake? There are no instructions other than to clean and grease and no pictures etc. Talking to the co. rep gets no joy.

Hi Ed. Tonic also has a low profile Nick Jackson davit (although I now use stern davits for the dinghy). Other than repairing a frayed cable, I have never done any maintenance on the davit, but you got me Googling.

Low Profiles- upper bearing is a "timkin" roller bearing, and needs to be greased every two years. the lower bearing is a compression bearing that you should lube every year w/ a light teflon grease or spray.

Click to expand...

From the company site and that is all I could find. It seems odd in this day and age that there is nothing else on-line or to download, but if there is I sure can't find it. All I can remember seeing in my on-board papers is a PO's invoice for the install but I'll re-check the boat in the next day or so to see if I have a manual for the davit.

Not so great that the co. rep wasn't helpful!

Tonic what you found is all I could find. Not even a picture or diagram of what has to be done and NJ unable to give me more.

Call Nick and ask him.............

OkSkipper said:

Call Nick and ask him.............

Click to expand...

I called the company and spoke to some one who was of little help with no drawings or description of what has to be cleaned or greased coming forth other then the motor is manufactured by another co. wren or something like that. I did finally get a blow up of the motor and parts but still no indication of what to grease and how to get to it. I am going to go and pull it apart today and see what I can do. I will try one more call to NJ. If I learn anything I will take pictures and post.

This is what came with mine.....

eyschulman said:

I... will try one more call to NJ. If I learn anything I will take pictures and post.

Click to expand...

Are you sure you have a Nick Jackson davit? Nick usually answers the phone and their only shop is in Redmond, WA. He made ours and we do not have a davit brake but then again we may have a different model.

NickJackson Co. - Davits, Boat Lifts ~WELCOME!! ~

Bay Pelican has one of Nick's bent pipe dinghy cranes. Nick usually answers the phone and has been consistently helpful.

My davit is a NJ low profile. This morning I got up on the roof with tools and found the cause of the screeching. The large black spool at the end of the boom was frozen in place. It took a good deal of lube and time to remove it and of course there was no way it would go back in. This is why(a obvious design flaw) The black spool has a barring in its center which was clean and ran free. The metal ball baring unit does not go through the full width of the spool about 2/3 with a hollow space the rest of the way. The sides of the SS box that holds the spool/barring is not very thick and can easily be compressed by the bolt that holds the spool as happened with my unit. thus the SS box was pressing on the sides of the spool and stopping rotation. I expanded the box and lubed all putting light tension on the bolt and now all works well. The metal bearing should go through full width of spool and a set of washers even better to avoid contact of the box structure with the sides of the spool. I see what is there as poor design. I am still working on finding out about any maintenance needed for the Wren motor or brake. I have a name and# to call and will do so after I receive expected mail with some diagrams(maybe).

Yes, Nick answers the phone provided he is around. I believe they make good products, and they are helpful.

The OP lives in Seattle? Get in your car and go see Nick......

Hobo has the low profile model also, although 10 plus years old. If you need any docs, let me know and I'll see what I have. Our davit has been pretty much maintenance free.

I did find a manual for my NJ Low Profile davit. It's from 1994 (see parts prices on page 10). Not really much help for grease maintenance though it mentions checking the roller bearing and bearing strip for grease every 3 years. I think that's the horizontal rotation bearing(?). Not sure how you check that but mine seems to swing just fine after 20 years, so...

For what it's worth, I have scanned and posted the short manual.

There was also an owner's manual for Rule Winches in the folder. I didn't include it in the pdf. It's kind of a generic manual for automotive winches but as it's a similar vintage to the NJ manual, I suspect that is what is inside my davit. One thing of note in that manual is this..."Your Rule winch is permanently lubricated and sealed"...so no maintenance there.

Tonic said:

I did find a manual for my NJ Low Profile davit. It's from 1994 (see parts prices on page 10). Not really much help for grease maintenance though it mentions checking the roller bearing and bearing strip for grease every 3 years. I think that's the horizontal rotation bearing(?). Not sure how you check that but mine seems to swing just fine after 20 years, so...

For what it's worth, I have scanned and posted the short manual.

There was also an owner's manual for Rule Winches in the folder. I didn't include it in the pdf. It's kind of a generic manual for automotive winches but as it's a similar vintage to the NJ manual, I suspect that is what is inside my davit. One thing of note in that manual is this..."Your Rule winch is permanently lubricated and sealed"...so no maintenance there.

Click to expand...

Thank you I just received manual for NJ and Wren motor in mail from NJ and they are no help re; any maintenance needed on brake or motor. I do have from NJ the Name and # of someone to talk to at Wren. NJ rep. has been helpful but does not seem to know much about the Wren motor they put on their unit. Like your car stops working and you have to go to the company that supplied the parts a new cop out? I personally think if you sell a product you should back and understand all the components. This is not an issue unique to NJ it is becoming a more common problem. I intend to keep on this to find out what if any owner maintenance is needed.

Our Nick Jackson davit worked flawlessly for the 15 years we had our Krogen 42. I did experience some sticking of the shieve wheel at the end of the boom. If I remember correctly Nick reminded me that I was not to tighten the through bolt too much as it would compress the side plates and prevent free rotation of the grooved pulley. The bolt had a captive nut thus preventing loosening. It's easy to over tighten and compress the end plates as stainless steel is considerably softer that carbon steel.

CamanoFolks said:

Our Nick Jackson davit worked flawlessly for the 15 years we had our Krogen 42. I did experience some sticking of the shieve wheel at the end of the boom. If I remember correctly Nick reminded me that I was not to tighten the through bolt too much as it would compress the side plates and prevent free rotation of the grooved pulley. The bolt had a captive nut thus preventing loosening. It's easy to over tighten and compress the end plates as stainless steel is considerably softer that carbon steel.

Click to expand...

Exactly what I found. If properly designed the SS side walls would not be able to engage the pulley side walls. The central bearing would go through the whole spool width and slightly more so bolt compression would stop at the bearing allowing free motion of the spool. If this type of spool is not available off the shelf it could easily be custom made. For as nice a product as the NJ low profile davit why not?

You could easily modify the sheave - just punch out the bearing and inset a bronze bushing slightly longer than the width of the sheave. Alternatively, add a couple of spacers, one on each side of the sheave bearing, of slightly smaller diameter of course.

First boat from the PNW was one of Sam's "Surf Scoters". Damn thing was a attractive - folks would follow us into gas stations, parking lots etc to find out where we got that "cute" boat. Finally had to step up to the Krogen. He does have a good eye for design.

If the bearing is nylon make sure to use a synthetic lubricant like SuperLube. Petroleum based lubricants can cause a nylon bearing to swell and bind. Don't ask me how I know!

Rob

Well I finally tracked down the answer to the mystery of brake maintenance for the NJ low profile electric Warn motor units. The Warn operators guide states on page 14 That periodically the brake should be cleaned and greased. Well NJ did not know anything about that but did finally give me a contact at Warn who did. The bad news the whole works has to come apart to do that not something the typical owner does more a return to the Warn people. The good news you really don't have to do anything unless the brake is slipping. Many owners have been using the units for 15-20 years without problems. The Warn contact said he would not have put the statement about cleaning and greasing in the book.

Warn winch. That's what I have in mine.