Penn Fathom LD 2-Speed: Service Tutorial and First Look.

Started by johndtuttle, September 06, 2014, 12:31:12 AM

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Rivverrat

 Look forward to seeing if this helps. Just to be sure, you have checked, double checked, drag assembly, any spacers & rest to make sure all is in its right place & order ? Check inside of reel & spool for globs of grease. From what I've heard the newer Fathom's dont have the way to much grease issue. I'd still check... Jeff

Observer

I'll be taking this guy apart again later today, and these days, you can't ever check enough times... so.. I plan to get to the bottom of this!!

Will post photos of what I believe are the critical areas, the order of the washers and miscellaneous parts, and the current state of lube/greese.

Thanks Again.

Observer

Well, still working on the reel.  Along the way, I had some scary moments in my attempt to remove the shields from bearings 55L.  I tried to pull the clip out on each side, but picking at the edge of the clip ended up gouging the shield, and that would certainly not work.  Luckily, was able to just pry out the shields on both sides but the clip was not removed.  Not going to mess with that anymore.  Difficult to explain, but it appears the clip is nestled under the lip of the outer frame of the bearing making it impossible to pull/pick out.  Any pressure would just rotate the clip.  Most likely, I'm just not experienced enough with removing bearing clips.   Anyways, all shields are gone on both 55L bearings, and I soaked them again overnight in carb cleaner.

Re-assembled, and no improvement without the shields.  Next, tried a couple of combinations of flipping the counterbored bearing washer of the belleville assembly and the spring washer (#8) and any combination doesn't seem to make much difference in freespool.  I believe I have everything up to this point correct, and really figured that the biggest "bang for the buck" for improved freespool would be the drag disengaging spring and upstream with focus on the 2 bearings (26N) across the spool. 

No such luck for me, so I'll have to muster up some courage to go deeper, and look into remaining 3 bearings starting with 55A, and for me the scary one is 26N.  John's photo on page 1 showing "OMG what have we done" where there are about 20 pieces after disassembly is what is a bit intimidating. 

My current plan is to access each bearing, remove the shields, soak overnight in carb cleaner, 1-2 drops of TSI321, and then re-assemble (hopefully correctly) and without any spare parts.  If that doesn't work, then I'll have to think about it more.


alantani

for spool bearings, i've been leaving the outside race in place, just removing the inside race.  the open side allows for a thorough cleaning, the closed side allows for some level of protection from water.  i dunno.  after all these years, i am still not sure what's better......   :-\
send me an email at alantani@yahoo.com for questions!

JK47

Quote from: alantani on February 14, 2020, 09:12:18 PM
Check to see if 173 is broken.

I recently switched the handle/arm on my Torque 40NLD2 to a Visx16 handle/arm. After the replacement, the button (172) to switch between high/low gear was getting stuck when trying to release, in one direction only, not the other. Took it apart a few minutes ago, and sure enough one of the 173's is broke.

Observer

Continuation of my saga...

Well, to make a long story short, you can just read this 1st paragraph.  There still hasn't been any improvements in my freespool.  Still about 5 seconds before it comes to a stop.  Not sure what else I can do at this point, besides swapping in some bearings (55L) from a "good freespinning" Fathom 2 speed reel to eliminate potentially "bad bearings".  The status quo of freespool performance was maintained after I mustered the courage to do a FULL breakdown, and luckily I was able to re-assemble everything without any spare parts, and hopefully in the correct order.  There are some learnings here that I will come back to later in this post.

(longer version below...)

However, some interesting new "learnings" that I'd like to share for posterity.

I also own a Fathom 25NLD2 that is my "reference" which is brand new, never fished, never even spooled (until very recently), and has been "Cal-ed".  It is my "reference" because that spins for a country mile and a half.  Cal's shop really has this reel dialed-in and knows this reel inside and out.  Yes, I did take this apart, however, I only went as far as exposing the belleville assembly and spool.  No further.  Did not disassemble / go underneath the metal drag washer which encloses the main gears and all the other bits.  Too chicken at this time.  Last thing I want is potentially 2 jacked up reels. 

So, the observations and learnings from the "reference" 25N.  First, I noticed the main screws around the housing were all flat heads as opposed to the "semi-phillips" style on my 15 and other Fathom lever drag reels.  Perhaps this particular 25N is an earlier model, or the factory made a boo-boo, or it's part of Cal's service that swaps out the screws with flatheads.  Don't think it matters in any case, but it was the 1st thing I noticed as I carefully disassembled.  Next, I noticed Cal's work on the cam, which was modified/machined.  Nice.  Removed lever arm to release any pressure, and on to the left cover.  Nothing remarkable here, with the exception of a fairly high amount of a torque on the 3 screws securing what I call the "crown" aka (66A) Click Gear.
The Fathom 15 are torqued firm, but not to the level that these were, and I can't imagine it making that much of a difference, but I guess I can put that on the list of things I can try.  Upon removal, now we can carefully slide out the main axle and remove the spool from the frame.  Some differences here.  Starting with the carbon fiber drag side of the spool, there is the familiar spring (41) that sits on top of bearing (55A) within the metal drag washer, but between them lies a cupped washer, which is not on the schematic of the 15, 25N, or 40N.  Interesting.
Perhaps Cal's handiwork?  Earlier model of the 25N?  Speculation.  Let's move on.  On the opposite side of the spring, there is another cupped washer that is also not on the schematic on the 15, 25N, or 40N.  This washer, I think, could play a role in better freespool performance as it may be there to ensure pressure is evenly distributed across only the inner race of bearing (55L), whereas the spring may have manufacturing variability and not contact just the inner race.  Speculation.  Let's move on.  Removing the bearing (55L), I discover another washer.  Another difference between the schematics.  So far, 3 new washers that are not documented.  Hmmmm....  Let's move on to the opposite side of the spool.  The same (55L) bearing does NOT have a washer sitting inside the spool.  Interesting it's not "matched".  But, it does match the schematic, with no washer.  Perhaps the brass sleeve does this duty?  Now, onto the final piece, the series of parts that make up the belleville assembly.  Now I always counted 8 discrete parts.  Starting from the "crown", we have ( | | ) { | } ).  (excuse the ASCII art, but 8 individual components there.)  On the reference, it is exactly the same, with... you guessed it.. another washer that is added after the "tiny curvy brass washer" (#8) spring washer.  It is also curvy, but not brass. So a total of 9 parts on the reference.

So, what to do?  Put the reference back together to make sure I didn't jack anything up.  Mostly it works exactly the same with no spare parts.  Whew.  Hopefully it's fine.  Freespool, still good.  Spins very well (maybe slightly less well than disassembly), but still very good, so I'm going to let this one go for the time being.

What about the 15?  Well, this is where I think the next step is to play musical parts with things like bearings to see if I can isolate a "bad part"?  Along the way of disassembly, I learned that I lack some necessary tools and could use some suggestions from the community.  Clip removers.  Particular tool, or just a curved pick?  Re-inserting clips, is there a different tool?  Bearing puller when it's seated tightly in the spool as an example.  Something like tweezers, that can clear the inner diameter, but when "released" would span open, and pull from the backside to pull straight up/out?  Finally, some rubber padded channel lock pliers for things like removing the handle without biting into the anodizing knurled grip?  Brand/model recommendations?   

As far as the freespool goal, I'm continuing to think through other/better steps.
 
Thanks for reading along for those of you that are still awake.  It's painful as a beginner, but I really want to get to the bottom of this and learn to service these things myself. 



The adventure continues..




Brendan

#126
https://alantani.com/index.php?topic=29915.0
Here's a link for a bearing puller. Until recently i had only used it on my personal reels that were well serviced so not much of a test. My friend handed over some abused Trinidad's and they were helpful.
Best tip on clips I don't know the post but whatever you use for the tool, put the reel in a plastic bag.
Good luck, Brendan

Observer

Thank you Brendan!

Will have to inquire with Ernie. 

Nice idea on the bag over the clips.  I figured no matter what, I was likely going to loose some to "flight", so was planning to add them to my list of spare parts. 




Brendan

I can't take credit for the bag trick but I picked it up here. When I forget or rush I pay with time wasted looking for a clip.
Tight lines, Brendan.

Observer

Brendan,

Thanks again.  I did contact Ernie, and he was kind enough to meet me the same day and I picked up a couple of his bearing pulling tools.  Very happy with them.  Ernie is a super chill guy and if anyone is on the fence, I'd recommend reaching out to him.  He is not interested in going mass production on these tools, and is doing it just as a hobby.  The way I look at it, it is a custom, handmade (hand machined) tool that is made one at a time as a labor of love and very high quality for its intended purpose.  Fortunate to have met him.

 


Observer

#130
Well...

I was hoping there would be a lot more activity/discussion on this thread with the sheer number of experienced Fathom users/maintainers out there, but it seems like I'm mostly just documenting my observations.

To bring my journey to a close, I've improved freespool to an acceptable level through much experimentation.  I've seen acceptable (metric: 15-20s) performance improvements in both shielded and non-shielded spool bearings, so my general conclusion given my criteria is that it doesn't seem to make much of a difference.  I plan to maintain the reel after every sport boat trip with a minimum of a fresh water hose down, and semi-annual bearing clean/lube, and have accepted that maybe every 2-3 seasons (years), the bearings in general will be consumable items, and will be replaced.

   

Pierce

Hi,
I just bought a 40NLD2.  Just want to know if the handle knot can be replace witb a T-bar? Thanks.

alantani

it's pretty simple, but you have to pull the handle arm off and drill out the old grip.  a drill press is essential.   :-\
send me an email at alantani@yahoo.com for questions!

Pierce

Is there a size for the old grip i should measure before i cut off the handle and drill out thr old grip? Or i can reuse the old grip back?

steelfish

Quote from: Pierce on August 08, 2020, 01:55:05 PM
Hi,
I just bought a 40NLD2.  Just want to know if the handle knot can be replace witb a T-bar? Thanks.

of course it can be done, 2x better in my opinion

check this out
https://alantani.com/index.php?topic=21999.0

I did it with a steady hand and cut discs with a dremel

The Baja Guy