Overhauling a gold trinidad 16 and now static magged

[steelfish]

this is the gold shimano reel previous model from the actual as you already now.

I bought it used in regular shape few months ago, I wanted to have it much better than it was so, I planned to just upgrade the drags to Carbontex but since few years ago I got spoiled by the boss of the site and the rest of the guys here, so instead of just getting new CF drags I went with the clicking dog (trinidad DC dog and spring) and even I have enough luck to find a brand new Cals drag plate for this reel, some guys say its not necesary if your reel was bough after 2005, well anyway I wanted to give it a try.

cals drag plate on the left, stock drag plate on the right


here's a close up of both drag plates, note: cals drag plate is showing the bottom of the plate while the stocker is showing the top of it.


here's another close up but backwards, cals showing top section and stocker the bottom that make contact on the CF drag washer


carbontex now installed instead of the ugly Dartanium drags


then Cals drag plate installed


I forgot the take a picture of the dog upgrade, now it has a clicking dog and its always engaged no more worries on nuckle buster anymore.
the new dog and spring are not noticiable on this pic but I pointed out with a red arrow where the spring is holding the trinidad DC dog.



before closing the reel I also modified the nylon gear on the left side of the spool, I just grinded the teeth off to make it round and avoid contact with the rest of the plastic gears on the left plate, this mod increase the free spool tremendously


not perfect it looks really good and served its purpose





and last mod was to take the centrifugal brake system from the spool, but I did it because I feel very confortable and confident of the good old manual system when casting (thumb brake system) and without that weigh on the spool it feels ligther to spin, perfect for fishing live bait or cast light metal jigs all day (dont pay attention to the bearings on the bag, they belong to another reel), added few drops of tsi321 oil on each bearing.



some grease on the handle bearing to protect it from the saltwater and call it a day on this reel.



now after this many mods the reel feels ligther, more secure and stronger, they really worth the cost and time invested on them.
I might look for a nicer handle knob for this reel just for the bling factor.


*********  UPDATE  ***********************

instead of making another thread for my trini 16 I will update this one as this mod is also an improvement over the stock form (at least for me)

since the two small pins of the centrifugal control are next to zero help when casting anything above 4oz ( I normally cast 4 and 6oz jigs) then I opted to mag my reel with some small rare earth magnets, the reason was mostly what I just said and also I like to tinker my reels when I not in the water, this reel will never be used for surf fishing so I dont care if I lose 15-30yds on a casting distance, fishing on a panga you can always be near to any place to cast comfortable, no need for 70-80yds casting distance to reach the birds (feeding frenzy ).

well anyway, those mags can always be taken out if needed.

what you will need.
- some rare earth magnets
- glue , this time I used shoe goo
- a piece of square plastic
- a flat steel metal bar to put the magnets or steel washers if you prefer



first many hours before this I "painted" the flat steel bar and the rare magnets with nail acrylic polish to add a cover and prevent corrosion from the saltwater

then you need to glue the plastic thingy to the left side plate to be used as a base and also to put the magnets closer to the spool, the reason to use the plastic as base and not a bunch on metal washers is that I dont want to have anykind of reaction if I glue the steel flat bar directly to the aluminium plate.




then you also glue the steel flat bar to the plastic base




lastly you install the magnets, positive and negative next to each other, that will add more magnetic field than glued in all positive or all negavite order.


magnets are not glue, they are really strong and will be stick in their place forever, actually if you want to remove one of them you will have to use a flat screwdriver to push it out, really hard to take one out by hand.
this is how the static mag assembly looks


depending on your casting skills and your educated thumb you will find this mod as unnecesary but for a rockie or person that find hard to cast a conventional reel this will help a lot, specially on windy days
on this reel the free spool didnt got affected at all, same 30-40 seconds of free spool but 2x to 3x better when casting a 4oz jig

[handi2]

They are great reels. I use 2 30's, and a 40N, narrow model.

Good job on the restoration. It will last a long time.

[alantani]

great reels!   funny, though, that once you are done you basically have a torium!

[handi2]

great reels!   funny, though, that once you are done you basically have a torium!

But one that won't corrode so bad..!!

[steelfish]

great reels!   funny, though, that once you are done you basically have a torium!

thanks Boss.. tonight all mods will be reversed to where they were 

LOL, now seriously, If I ever feel the need to use the centrifugal brakes again they will be up in 5 minutes and the nylon gear cost $1.50 and then you will have a $400 reel again 

[madday]

nice Steelfish...

I own the ocea jigger 3000, probably the JDM counterpart of this reel... What is the advantage of Cal's plate? And what is the size?
I wonder if it will fit into the OJ3000

[CapeFish]

they are fantastic reels, I can kick myself I never got a Trinidad 40, now they are unobtanium

[Fish-aholic]

Nice work, Steelfish!

I don't want to hijack your thread but I just wanted to ask a quick question to those who have serviced many Trinidads/Toriums over the years...

While gazing upon the inside of the right side plate at the recess which accommodates the spools fixed axle, would anyone remember if they had found cases where the recess had grooved from abuse and damaged/grooved the spool axle in the process?

I ask because another reel repairer claims it is an inherent weakness with these models, but I've never seen or read of this issue before.

[steelfish]

nice Steelfish...
I own the ocea jigger 3000, probably the JDM counterpart of this reel... What is the advantage of Cal's plate? And what is the size?
I wonder if it will fit into the OJ3000

Helllo Madday, according to some guys and reading over many sites this Cals drag plate add a bit more pressure on the drag stack no much noticiable over the stock drag plate but the real advantage is since is the bottom side is machined as you can see on the pics #1 and #2 and if you add some CF washers then the drag will be smoother than when using the stock molded drag plate.
I read also that there was an issue with the drag on the first trinidad models and shimano offered a Free upgrade kit for those who bought their reels before 2005, they changed the drag plate and right side plate, before this upgrade the Cals drag plate was a big improvement over the stock drag that trinidad had, If Im not wrong the Boss Alan Tani said that at this moment there is not significant improvement over using the stock drag plate or  Cals drag plate, but since I found one brand new locally with a friend it would not hurt to test it.

Nice work, Steelfish!

I don't want to hijack your thread but I just wanted to ask a quick question to those who have serviced many Trinidads/Toriums over the years...

While gazing upon the inside of the right side plate at the recess which accommodates the spools fixed axle, would anyone remember if they had found cases where the recess had grooved from abuse and damaged/grooved the spool axle in the process?

I ask because another reel repairer claims it is an inherent weakness with these models, but I've never seen or read of this issue before.

I have no even close the experience and years working on repairing reels as many of the guys here, but so far I have serviced and repair a bunch of toriums (which is very popular in Baja) and another bunch of trinidad reels, none of them had any problem as you described.
mostly the bearings are the first to go and then few problems on corrosion on toriums, but I need to clarify that both problems are totally for a lack of service in many years.

[Fish-aholic]

Thanks for your insight!

Maybe it's safe to assume the deafening silence regarding my question is not the wide spread problem it has been painted out to be
     

[Keta]

Nice.

[Jeri]

Nice work, Steelfish!

I don't want to hijack your thread but I just wanted to ask a quick question to those who have serviced many Trinidads/Toriums over the years...

While gazing upon the inside of the right side plate at the recess which accommodates the spools fixed axle, would anyone remember if they had found cases where the recess had grooved from abuse and damaged/grooved the spool axle in the process?

I ask because another reel repairer claims it is an inherent weakness with these models, but I've never seen or read of this issue before.

The only long term problems we have found with both Torium and Trinidad (gold) reels, is basically down to the abuse some of our anglers visit upon these reels, combined with lack of maintenance.

It starts with the fact the guys wade with the reels, getting them fully saturated, and then don't wash them out after fishing. This causes serious problems with the bush (Torium) and bearing (Trinidad) at the bottom of the main shaft – they rust and then self destruct. Apart from that they are both pretty good reels, and have only need of a drag upgrade to make them very good – even in our abusive environment.


Hope that helps.

Cheers from sunny Africa


Jeri

[Fish-aholic]

The only long term problems we have found with both Torium and Trinidad (gold) reels, is basically down to the abuse some of our anglers visit upon these reels, combined with lack of maintenance.

It starts with the fact the guys wade with the reels, getting them fully saturated, and then don't wash them out after fishing. This causes serious problems with the bush (Torium) and bearing (Trinidad) at the bottom of the main shaft – they rust and then self destruct. Apart from that they are both pretty good reels, and have only need of a drag upgrade to make them very good – even in our abusive environment.


Hope that helps.

Cheers from sunny Africa


Jeri

Those common issues you've mentioned I have experienced myself on many occasions. I have even had reels with severe tooth damage to both the main and pinion gears including having bent spool axles, yet despite the obvious abuse, I've not seen or read any documented cases regarding damage to the recess I have enquired about.

Seems this apparent achilles heel holds as much water as a sieve.

Thanks for the enlightenment of your experiences, Jeri!

[steelfish]

updated the 1st post.


now with a static magging process on the same reel.

[Jeri]

Hi Steelfish,

In your adaptation of this Trinidad, do you not think that you have taken one time proven and versatile braking system – removed it, and replaced it with a non-adjustable system of unknown potential problems.

Sure you can reduce the magnetic influence by removing a single magnet or more, but the flux value of the magnets is perhaps an initial issue – as when buying your first magnets, there will be a period of trial and error to get the right amount of magnetic influence to adjust the reel to your personal preference and casting skill?

There have been many casting reels adapted to use magnetic braking over centrifugal braking, but on all the deliberate factory systems they have the huge benefit of external adjustment, whether by proximity or polarity changes. And it is this very singular aspect that makes static magnetic braking a failure – the lack of external adjustability. You might have saved a lot of time and anguish by sticking with the original centrifugal system, which has infinite adjustability to the very fine requirements of multiple levels of casting skill.

I have owned a number of magnetic braked reels, and also a good number with centrifugal, and have always found that in my requirements of distance surf casting, that the theme of development goes from standard greased bearings to high speed oils, and with very fine tuning of the centrifugal to maximise the effect of the first stage tuning. Even to the point where on some models, actually reducing the mass of the brake blocks will give the ultimate finesse required for absolute maximum distance. Messing around with removing whole static magnets would never give that kind of ability and versatility.

The original designs for long distance surf casting and tournament casting were basically to introduce braking towards the end of the flight of the sinker as gravity, air resistance and loss of inertia start to influence the sinker from taking the line a high speed reel is delivering – through adjustability of the magnetic braking – something that static magnets will never be able to offer.

If you wanted to slow a 'too fast' reel down, just pack the bearings full of thick grease?

Just my personal 2 cents worth.

Cheers from sunny Africa


Jeri