Harken Furler Ball Bearing Emergency

[Brion Toss]

Hello,
Ah, the "Harken Rain." That's right, what you experienced is so common that there is actually a term for it. Beware removing your traveler car for maintenance, unless it is the type with the captive bearings. Also damaged blocks, mast luff cars, or anything else with open races.
Oh, and be sure to apply one drop of One Drop to each race on your furler. Amazing stuff.
Fair leads,
Brion Toss

[sully75]

I'm glad I'm not the only dumdum.

[Essington]

Haha, Harken Rain ...

I'm sure I have this nice wooden tool somewhere that I made (for working on the traveler car on my catamaran) to keep the bearings in the car long enough to get them somewhere that they could be removed without losing any of them.

I'm currently working on reassembling a harken furler that my buddy mistakenly "disassembled" and experienced that very issue. This one is off the boat though, so reassembly is much easier.

[knuterikt]

Originally Posted by Essington

Haha, Harken Rain ...

I'm sure I have this nice wooden tool somewhere that I made (for working on the traveler car on my catamaran) to keep the bearings in the car long enough to get them somewhere that they could be removed without losing any of them.

I'm currently working on reassembling a harken furler that my buddy mistakenly "disassembled" and experienced that very issue. This one is off the boat though, so reassembly is much easier.

My Levmar traveler came with a plastic track that is handy to keep for future disassembling / assembling of the car, it's designed so that you can easily put bearings back in.