Abu Garcia USA1 Baitcaster. Spool shaft is sticking to pinion gear...

[AcousticTennis]

SO I revived a ooold USA1 baitcaster the other day. Ran GREAT, sweet little reel. Few days later he tells me its stuck and wont cast, reel, or engage anymore. I finally get my hands on it and its not fully dis-engaging. Pinion gear wont budge. I open it up and the shaft is STUCK in the pinion gear. I finally get it unstuck and it looks like it started rusting to the pinion gear.

I didnt touch the spool shaft or inside of the pinion gear other then a once over with a q-tip so get the dust off/out.

Cleaned it off and it works fine again. Not sure what would make it start doing that especially when it sat in a garage for years and had no issue after that.

Has anyone encountered this before? I'm holding onto it for a few days before handing it back just to see if it sticks again.

[festus]

I've never had that happen, but when I first worked on an Abu 4600 the end of the spool shaft was stuck in the axle clip and had me baffled there for a few minutes. 

[tholmes]

SO I revived a ooold USA1 baitcaster the other day. Ran GREAT, sweet little reel. Few days later he tells me its stuck and wont cast, reel, or engage anymore. I finally get my hands on it and its not fully dis-engaging. Pinion gear wont budge. I open it up and the shaft is STUCK in the pinion gear. I finally get it unstuck and it looks like it started rusting to the pinion gear.

I didnt touch the spool shaft or inside of the pinion gear other then a once over with a q-tip so get the dust off/out.

Cleaned it off and it works fine again. Not sure what would make it start doing that especially when it sat in a garage for years and had no issue after that.

Has anyone encountered this before? I'm holding onto it for a few days before handing it back just to see if it sticks again.

I've had the axle stick in the pinion before on reels that sat unused for a long time. I don't think it's rust, I think it's varnish from a mineral-based oil that sat for several years. Clean it out and maybe polish the inside of the pinion gear with a Q-tip and some Brasso and oil it up with a synthetic iol and you should be good to go.

Tom