Frozen Drag 320gt2

[Thubert57]

Alan,

First thanks for a great site!!  I have followed your work on some other sites and have learned a LOT.

The question (or problem); I have a Penn 320gt2 that has a seized drag.  I started the rebuild according to your tutorial but can’t seem to get the main gear off the gear sleeve.  I was able to get two steel and two carbon drag washers out but the rest is stuck.  I would greatly appreciate any advice on correcting this dilemma.

Tom

[akfish]

You have very serious corrosion. You'll need to soak the bridge and main gear to try to get them apart. You'll then need to replace the drag washers and may beed a new set of gears. I see this fairly frequently with reels that have been put away wet and not serviced...

[Thubert57]

Thanks AK,  What would you recommend soaking it in something like a brake cleaner?

[akfish]

You can probably get it apart by soaking over night in Simple Green. If you have any Salt-X, you could use that. But I'm guessing that if you drag stack is completely stuck, you have other problems. How is the ball bearing in the bridge? What about the left side bearing? Were the gears still smooth before you took it apart?

[Thubert57]

Actually everything was in pretty good shape except the drag stack and washer between the main gear and gear sleeve.  Thanks for your advice!

[alantani]

what also sometimes happens is that the keyed metal drag washers will dig into the soft brass gear sleeve and create a small burr.  the main gear or the other metal washers can get stuck against the burr. between that and general corrosion, it can get really tough to get the main gear off the gear sleeve.  

remember that red battery powered screwdriver i'm so fond of?  well, it does double duty as a hammer. what i do sometimes is screw the handle nut into the top of the gear sleeve, hold the main gear in a towel and then pound on the top of the handle nut (and gear sleeve) with my screwdriver and pound the gear sleeve out.  sometimes it won't budge.  then i will bolt on the handle, hold the main gear in that same towel and twist like crazy.  sometimes i have to do both.  it's just brass.  it will definitely give.  to get the main gear back on, clean up the burrs with a flat file and it will slide right back on!  alan