Looking to expand my quiver

[Rancanfish]

I've got it pretty well backed off; little bit of side to side play in the spool.  I'm afraid I may have boogered the pinion a little separating the ring from it.

What?  I have never taken the ring off a pinion. Didn't even know it was possible.  But I suspect that may be the problem.  Did you grab it with pliers to hold it?  Not a disaster I suppose.  You can probably file off any burrs easy enough.  I've wrecked a few parts in my day.

You'll get it right. Good luck.

Oh yeah, look at your yoke where the pinion sits. Is the chamfered (worn) side up?

[igoswoop]

The ring didn't turn freely and I couldn't get all the old brown grease out of all the recesses with it on. No pliers. I gently pried it off working with a small flathead screwdriver made of aluminum. There was a lot of crud in there. It was a pretty simple press fit back on. It did need a few whacks with a plastic mallet but it snapped right back in and spun a lot smoother.

I'm not sure I'm describing what the handle feels like now very well. This is not a grinding, friction like resistance. It's like I feel a direct connection to that interface between the main gear and the pinion and I can feel the gear teeth meshing as the handle is turned vs just a smooth resistance. I get a little bit of growl out of the gears when I turn the handle fast. Does that make any sense?

I'll take a look at the yoke this morning.

Thanks!

[igoswoop]

Update...

I guess the oil I put in the bearings needed to sleep in there overnight. The gear "feel" is still present but it's a big difference from yesterday. The reel feels pretty good now. Just got it spooled up with 50# braid over 30# mono. Stopping at Ace for some acorn nuts right now!

[RowdyW]

Make sure the acorn nuts are stainless steel.

[thorhammer]

Mine at work today

[igoswoop]

Got the ss acorn nuts on and had to trim almost 9/16" off the posts. Man, that is slick without the wing nuts. This combo is exactly what I was hoping for. I'll post up some pics as soon as the Photobucket app quits crashing.

[igoswoop]

Forgot to ask:

What's the consensus on the handle? I found the senator style handle referenced earlier in this thread and I also see Alan suggesting an older international handle that I don't ever recall seeing a part number for? Def want more cranking leverage than the stock handle even though it looks super cool.

[Shark Hunter]

I've got it pretty well backed off; little bit of side to side play in the spool.  I'm afraid I may have boogered the pinion a little separating the ring from it.

What?  I have never taken the ring off a pinion. Didn't even know it was possible.  But I suspect that may be the problem.  Did you grab it with pliers to hold it?  Not a disaster I suppose.  You can probably file off any burrs easy enough.  I've wrecked a few parts in my day.

You'll get it right. Good luck.

Oh yeah, look at your yoke where the pinion sits. Is the chamfered (worn) side up?

I have had the pinion ring come off on the smaller reels.
It works fine without it.
I don't take it off intentionally, it just happens sometimes.
As far as that power handle you are looking for. The options are abundant.
That reel is powerful as it is for its size.

[igoswoop]

This outfit does what I wanted out of it in spades. Fished Sunday morning and I landed two nice kings on it as well as getting to beat up on a few snapper in the 20lb range. The rod is stronger than my star rods and this reel has more horsepower than my stock jigmasters. Now I need to get to work on the jigmasters. Stainless steel gear sleeves and longer handles are going on them.

A senator power handle showed up from Scott's today and I just put it on the 990. It's perfect.

[thorhammer]

Yes if you're not long casting power handle is good.  Get us some fish pics!

[igoswoop]

Photobucket app crashes every time I launch it. Stand by....

[igoswoop]

21# ARS (Hate throwing these back but they ARE "endangered"....)


Didn't get any pics of the kings but here we are working on the results of dragging some live bait:



In 4 hours I will be making some fish dip!!!

[thorhammer]

Good job brother! Most folks I know won't eat kings or bluefish, but I think if bled quickly and cooked that day and topped with a little lemon and butter they are quite good. The smoked dip is a VERY overlooked venue for these guys. Outstanding.

Where are you fishing?

[igoswoop]

I fish out of Cape Canaveral, FL. We get some big blues along the beach in the winter and early spring down here before the mahi show up. I treat them the same way as I do king mackerel. Get the fish in, gutted and gill bled quickly. I put them on salted ice in my fish box. Chilling them down fast is the key to better texture for us since it gets so hot down here.

I don't care much for kings unless I've caught them and prepared myself. The meat has a higher water content than mahi and wahoo so brining the filets for an hour with the skin and blood line meat off in a mixture of brown sugar & salt toughens up the meat before the grill if you want to grill fresh. The brine turns into a thin syrup like consistency when chilled that really does well on the grill. Nobody can guess its a king when I serve it this way. I usually do this the night I get back from a trip or for lunch the following day. I agree 100% with a squeeze of fresh lemon and some melted butter. Most people don't know what they're missing. It takes a lot more care and handling to get good food value out of a king than most know how to do without all the milk and Italian dressing 2 day marinades and such. The only thing that gets that kind of circus for me is shark but again, gutted promptly and chilled I like them too.

The rest goes on the smoker for me with any fruit wood, preferably orange trees since we have so many around here. It's the only way I've been able to freeze king macks that doesn't get icky when thawed. I usually make up a  few 10oz batches of fish dip and freeze the rest to make future batches. When I'm out of smoked filets, we go catch 3-4 more  

[Shark Hunter]

Glad you are fitting right in Swoop.
Nice fish and pics.
Glad someone is catching.
And eating.