Michell Riptide 4/0GL service tutorial

[troutman561]

Here is my first attempt at a reel tutorial. I could not find much info on this reel and I am sure it is not very common so here goes. My uncle originally had this reel and I am not sure if he was the original owner. He kept it outside, on the deck of the boat he had that he rarely used. As you can see, the outside of it was not in great shape and I doubt he ever rinsed the thing. I tried to post the schematics I got thanks to Don (Donnyboat) on here but it wont work for some reason. The do leave a bit to be desired to be diligent in disassembly. If you need them just message me on here. The descriptions for any picture that needed captioning are before the picture itself.





The reel came on a Mitchell branded rod with an aluminum reel seat. The rod feels good and has roller guides so I will keep it. Unfortunately everything is corroded and including the reel to the rod. A little break free and some time and she was freed from the rod




The screws require and allen head and I used a "V-2". Oh yea, everything on the reel is metric and every screw including the bridge screws use this size


The handle nut requires a 11mm socket. As you will see later, the free spool lever nut requires a 10mm so grab that too.


Here is the order in which everything came off the star. Going from left and right would be: The handle, copper washer, flat washer, ring, star. The copper washer is not seen in the schematic.


Here is the right side plate sans handle. Note the washer on the gear sleeve. I did not and it fell off and took me a while to find its home. The schematics leave some to be desired.


Note the different screw sizes. This is sort of out of order of how I did stuff but I wanted to point it out. The screws for the left side are just very slightly shorter than those of the right (handle) side. Place them in a spot separately so you don't loose track.


10mm socket as mentioned above


Here is the inside of the left side plate. It was surprisingly clean and corrosion free. Since this was all clean I just rubbed the old great off and tooth brushed on the Yamaha grease. I also did not mess with the level wind gears. They are plastic. The only tricky part to that is the outside most gear. It will fall out when manipulating the side plate, so take note of its orientation before moving on. (it is under the ring in this pic.)


Note how clean the spool is. It also appears to be aluminum


Here is the right side plate. As it was on the other side, this area is amazingly clean and corrosion free. The bridge is familiar to anyone who has serviced a Senator before. The pinion holder (yoke?) and eccentric are a bit trickier to deal with than the Senator, take note of how everything is oriented in this picture because this is how it must be to reassemble.





Here is the other side of the bridge revealing the bronze main gear and the 4 bridge screws. All 4 bridge screws are the same unlike a Senator so no need to pay extra attention to them.


Note the way the dog sits in it's place. it came out stuck to the bridge via grease. It will be to be removed before reinstalling the main gear and bridge


Here is the drag stack. The drag washers themselves are some sort of plastic and there are 2 metal washers on top of each other. Not very impressive. Take note of the order that all of the sleeves, washers, etc come off and which direction they are oriented.


I wanted to upgrade these crap washers and I had some old washers from a Senator 114h that looked to be about the size. As you can see they are a hair bigger. I will come back to this later.


Note the orientation of these washers. From top to bottom (when installed) is: ()(


The eccentric, pinion, and pinon holder (not sure that's its technical name) removed.


The Singapore origin bearing from the right side plate.


The tiny pinion. I have yet to pull apart a 4/0 Senator to compare but this thing is tiny compared to a 6/0.


Left side of the spool


Here is the pinion and the pinion holder spring installed.


This is after everything was put back. Note the rotation of the bridge. This is necessary to get the dog back in. Also, the easiest way I found to get the pinion, its holder, ad the eccentric back is was to put the main gear and bridge in first, the the pinion, then the eccentric in the "retrieve" position, and then the pinion holder. Once in, flip the eccentric back to free spool. Be care as it can be tricky but once it is back in free spool it should stay. Then, put the dog back in and rotate everything home. Double check and make sure the dog is not under the gear sleeve and binding it. Put the 4 screws back in and she is good to go!



Before replacing the inside rings, take note of this little washer. It is on both the left and the right inner side plate and it goes between the ring and the side plate. It basically bridges a gap. I used a dab of grease to hold it in place while manipulating everything around.


Here is the level wind. You can also get a better look at the loose plastic level wind gear in this picture.


You can turn the level wind "worm" by hand to get most of it out for cleaning, do one side and then the other. I put corrosion X in there for protection and lubrication.


I went ahead and soaked all of the chromed pieces and screws in water and vinegar over night. After a soak and some light scrubbing they look much better. Not perfect, but a drastic improvement.


The left side plate with the posts and the level wind reinstalled.


Here is the drag stack. I decided to try 3 drag washers so there is not metal on metal in the drag installation. I got my 114h HT100's to fit by grinding a tiny bit off of the edges, They fit perfectly but unfortunately they were too thick and the handle would not turn with 3. I pulled the extra one out and it works fine with 2 HT100. It wont be throwing out 35lbs of drag but I figure this is a vast improvement over plastic. This reel wont be seeing much hardcore bottom fishing so any drag over 10lbs would be a surprise for this reel in my intended use for it. I am probably going to talk to Dawn at smooth drag and get some thinner carbontex washers so I can fit 3 in there.


Here she is back together. Overall not too bad. I dont have a lot of pics of reassembly as it is pretty self explanatory. Good luck. I will update once I find out about the drag washers

[Alto Mare]

Not a bad job for being your first attempt at a tutorial Ryan, good job!
Interesting little reel, that clicker spring on the lrft plate really caught my eye and it's design makes sense to me.
Thanks for sharing...keep'em coming!

Sal

[troutman561]

Not a bad job for being your first attempt at a tutorial Ryan, good job!
Interesting little reel, that clicker spring on the lrft plate really caught my eye and it's design makes sense to me.
Thanks for sharing...keep'em coming!

Sal

Thanks for compliment Sal!

I can see where the clicker design makes sense and obviously works but, why this design over that which we see in the Senators and many others? That was one of the first thoughts I had when I saw it. There is obviously a reason for this.

[alantani]

nicely done!  you have a pm!