sx - 3/8/06

[alantani]

i've got photos of several avets that i'm going to post.  i will start with the sx tear down because it's the one that i took a complete set of photos for.   go to the avet website for schematics.  you can also call them for any parts that you might need.  the tear down on these reels is one of the most simple lever drag tear downs i know. 

a local kid brought this reel over.  it was fine.  he was just looking for a little more drag. 





pulling the right side plate off takes only two screws (key #31).



remove the right side plate and spool as a unit, then set it aside.  let's take a look inside.  the most common avet problem in the last half dozen reels i worked on was a stuck clicker assembly.  this one is fine.  if your's is stuck, drop a little corrosion x on it from both sides and work it, or let it soak.  then slap some grease on top.



the screws (key #56) of the reel seat of this particular reel were already greased.   check your reel, because that may not always be the case. 



now to the guts of the reel.  remove the preset knob and spring (key #'s 41 and 42).  you'll have to hold the spool shaft on the other side.  leave the lever exactly where it is and don't move it. 



it comes apart pretty easily at this point.  um, this is good and bad.  for the photo, i've put the spool shaft back together so that you can see the bellevilles (key #5), the pusher bushing (key #6), the left spool bearing (key #7), the spool tube or bearing sleeve (key #8), the right spool bearing (key #14), two spool washers (key #16) with a spool spring (key #15) in between, and the brake bearing (key #17).  note that i've already changed the configuration of the belleville washers from "()()" to "(())".



now, on to the drag washer.  this one's clean as a whistle, front ....



.... and back. 



i've applied a thick coat of shimano drag grease to the inside of the spool and to both sides of the drag washer.  the purpose is to protect these surfaces from salt water intrusion.  apply enough grease to prevent water from getting in between the drag washer and the spool.



now wipe all the excess grease.  and i mean all of it!  when you're done, you should be able to look at a greased washer and a dry washer and not be able to tell the difference. 



lube the bearings with corrosion x.  i've noted that some of the bearings have shields and some are open.  either way is fine. 



now put it all back together again



slide the spool shaft back through the side plate, hold the spool shaft on the left side and re-install the preset knob.



grease the screw holes, put everything back together.....



.... and watch it spin!



now, you will recall that this reel was brought to me because the owner wanted a little more drag range.  to acomplish this, i changed the belleville configuration from "()()" to "(())".  the result was interesting.  with every click of the knob, the drag increased predictably, going from 2.5 pounds, to 4, to 6, then 8, 10, 12, then it jumped to 15 and then to 18 before i finally lost freespool.  yup, 18 pounds of drag and i still had 45 seconds freespool! 



the problem was that at 10 pounds of drag, i started noticing a lateral load on the right side plate bearing.  the handle became increasingly difficult to crank.  so from a practical point of view, 10 pounds is still the maximum drag setting that you can use.  come to think of it, i should probably get this reel back and changed out the bellevilles again.  there's no point in having anything more than 10 pounds of drag at strike.  i'm sure the engineers at avet had already thought this through.  still, it was fun to do, even just this once!

nice reel, but it holds some surprises.  more on that later....

[alantani]

ok, here goes the editorial part. 

i will start out by saying that these are tough little reels.  you are about to see some pretty ugly stuff.  remember while you are looking at these photos, that all of these reels had good to excellent freespool.  they also all had good to excellent drag.  well, one reel had a sticky drag, but it would have still caught fish.  so i'm going to show you the photos and make a few explanations.  then i'm going to say what i like about the reel, then what i do not like, and then i'm going to duck out for a little bit while the fur flies!  i know these are very popular reels.  that's why it's taken me so long to work up the courage to write this post.  so here goes.....

so a guys sends me six avets just before christmas.   ok, fine, i don't get many of these (this is a good thing).  i've never written an avet rebuild post so i grab my camera and i take a shot of the reels....



i open up the first reel and i'm horrified!  here was the working side of the drag washer....



but this is what i found underneath.  we'll call this reel #1



i called avet and they said to just clean it and reinstall it.  so i cleaned it....



but decided to order new washers....



and some grease from cal sheets.



here's reel #2 with drag washer that's clean as a whistle. 



here's reel #3 with a stuck clicker and minimal salt water corrosion in the drag.







here's reel #4 with extensive salt water intrusion .





here's reel #5 with moderate salt water intrusion





and here's the jx, in perfect condition



the reels were all rebuilt with no change in bellville configuration.  the first three mxj's had drag washers that were greased with shimano drag grease and all three delivered 9 pound of drag at strike before losing freespool.  the last two mxj's and the jx were rebuilt with cal's drag grease.  the two mxj's delivered 9 pound of drag at strike before losing freespool.  the jx delivered 12 pound of drag at strike.   

so here's what i like.  i like the open design of the avet drag chamber.  without a spool cap to cover the drag chamber, yes water will get in, but it will also get out.  sure, a cap on the drag chamber will keep small amounts of water out.  but if water gets in, it's trapped.  that's the main and fatal problem with the penn 975 lever drag. 

i don't like the fact that avet uses a dry drag washer.   i saw no loss of drag range in these six reels with grease on the drag washers.  and i'm certain no one would disagree that grease would stop the corrosion dead in it's tracks.  it's my opinion that a grease drag is a good thing.  either shimano or cal's drag grease should work just fine.

so now that everyone knows how to tear down and rebuild these reels, i have a question.....

what's in your avet?

[alantani]

http://www.sportfishermen.com/board/f257/avet-binding-issue-69594.html#post520126

is there anything that can be done to help the binding of my avet sx 5.0:1 at high drag pressure?   it makes a sweet little light weight jigging reel but the drag too light when you keep it where the handle will turn smoothly.

yes. i am looking for a bearing with the same inside diameter and close to the same thickness, yet has a larger outside diameter. this "larger" bearing will be able to support a greater axial/lateral load than the current stock bearing. i have a machine shop that will bore out the existing bearing cup, keeping everything concentric, to accomodate the larger bearing. i am hoping that we do not bore clear through the side plate. this will not be easy, or pretty, but if there is enough room it should work.

this project is 4th in line. the first project is a topless frame for the charter special 1000 and 2000. the second project is a larger housing for the anti-reverse assembly in the shimano trinidad and torium. this will allow for a double stack of anti-reverse bearings, but will require a longer inside sleeve and a longer drive shaft. the third project is a topless frame for the penn 320 gti. the avet right main side plate bearings for the sx, mx, jx, lx and hx are fourth. it will probably cost $100 to have the reel completedly serviced, including a larger bearing, full bearing service, shimmed bellevilles and greased drags. remember, we do not even know if this will work. alan

[alantani]

Hi, Alan.  Just wanted to say thanks to you for all the wonderful reel maintenance posts you have made over the years. It has greatly influenced what I have purchased in the last years (Avet, Pro Gear Albacore 280, and Penn 975 star drag). Last year I fished my Avet SX MC more than anything else with 50 braid on a 100 lb Shimano Trevala rod, which I even broke and Shimano replaced free. Not any monster fish, but loads and loads of them: bluefish, stripers, fluke, bonita, and false albacore.  Anyway I just took my Avet apart after its first year of heavy use-- it has the glued on drag washer. I had greased it when new, every screw and every inside surface. It was super clean inside, zero corrosion. I wiped it clean of old grease and again used liberal amounts of Penn grease away from the shaft and drag, Cal's on the drag then wiped clean, and Corrosion-X on the shaft/ spool bearing area. The reel is so fast I am not worried about giving up a little free-spool in exchange for corrosion protection. Good to go for another year. This reel takes lots of salt water spray in the boat, but gets lightly rinsed after every trip and air dried. The outside gets sprayed with Penn reel cleaner before every use, which is a corrosion inhibitor.  Thanks again, and Happy New Year!  Jim 

[alantani]

Hey Alan, Haven't had to bother you in a while, until now. I hope all is well with you and yours. I'm working on amy buddy's 2 yr old Avet SX 5.0.1 and have a issue with the drag not that it's back together. Before servicing it was hard to retrieve line almost like it had a dead spot on the turn of the handle. Now it has great free spool, handle turns nice and smooth, but when I engage the lever drag to full it goes to free spool and then I can't move the lever. I reviewed some of your post and saw where you mentioned 3 possible positions for re-allinging the drag lever and to just retry until you get it right. Is this what you are referring to? Do you have a link for the schematic for this real? I didn't see one on your tutorial.
Thanks again.  

yeah, the cam has to nest in the lowest position when the lever is in the free position.  you've got to find that spot.  keep rotating the cam until you hit it.  this one is the closest.  

http://www.avetreels.net/pdf/sxsinglespeed.pdf

can you try it an let me know?  thanks!  alan

Alan, All is well, thanks again for you expertise!! Hopefully we'll let some stripped bass put it to the test today!

Trent

glad it worked.  alan

[Taily]

Alan,

Did you ever get to the bottom of working-out if there was an upgrade to the standard bearing issue? Was there a tapered roller bearing that would fit the standard machined recess in the reel, or was there some machining involved in fitting a larger ball bearing?

Regards,

Dave

[alantani]

i found a thrust bearing with a 6mm ID but it has a 4mm thickness.  there is unfortunately not an extra 4mm of room in the side plate.  the issue can be addressed, but it would require a redesign of the side plate for either a larger ball bearing or a combination ball bearing and thrust bearing.  interestingly, the makaira has a thrust bearing inside the spool.  i still can't wrap my head around how that works, but it seems to. 

[fishingjack]

Hi Alan,
I'd love to see you do a little DIY mod on this reel to make it twin drag. One drag washer operating on each side of the spool. I remember you saying somewhere that it wouldn't be too hard to do. It would of course require a stronger Anti-Reverse bearing I'm sure.

p.s. Could adding extra washers inside the preset knob give more tension. Putting more force on the drag washer. I'm wondering how far the drag can be pushed on this reel without totally destroying it.

Thanks
-Jack

[alantani]

anything really past 9-10 pounds will burn out the right main side plate bearing pretty quick.

[matrixx611]

Hi Alan,

I just completed tearing down my SX single speed.  Thank you again!!  I was just wondering if it is also the same tear downs for the JX, LX, HX (all 2 speeds) as the SX?  I planning to grease them and maybe replace the drags if they are damage. 

Thanks again.

[alantani]

they are all very similar!

[benha]

I just opened up my two SX reels - about a year old - to grease / clean for the rockfish season.  They were in very clean shape inside, but the drag washers were completely stuck to the spools.  I mean... Like... Glued.  On the first one I thought it might be corrosion or dry grease or something and pried a bit.  The washer delaminated leaving the bottom layer of carbon stuck to the spool and the rest of it came off.  The 2nd one was similarly stuck, so I didn't pry.

Help?

[alantani]

if there was no retaining ring, there you likely have a later model with a drag washer that is glued to the spool.  if the drag washer has come off, then you will need to clean the metal surface and use epoxy to glue on a new washer.  otherwise, just apply drag grease to the drag washer and pay particular to the edges.  you don't want salt water creeping in under the edges. 

[benha]

Oye.  Crud.  So now I've really messed it up.  Okay.  I'll see if I can scrape off the remaining bits of the carbon washer from the spool and get another one glued on there.

Didn't realize they glued the washers on!

[alantani]

http://alantani.com/index.php?topic=2630.0