Gawling

[franky]

I'm not sure if I spelled this right...Gawling.  

Anyway, what causes a reel to gawl?  Some of the reels that I work on tend to gawl more than others.  I noticed that even if I put a lot of grease on the pinion and the main gear, when the teeth mesh together, a lot of the grease is just pushed to the side and the gawling continues.  Am I just wasting grease by doing this?    Is it time to change the pinion and gear due to wear and tear?

Is the gawling caused by certain material?  For example, stainless gears and pinions versus brass gears and pinions.  I noticed that newells tend to gawl (stainless gears and pinions) more than penn brass gears and pinions.

Could it be the wear and tear of a part?  For example, new pinion and gear has less slop versus an older used gear and pinion that has worn teeth and more slop that makes noise when they mesh.

Thanks in advance for your responses.

[VW]

Galling is a form of wear caused by adhesion between sliding surfaces. Read more here; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galling

Stainless steel is particularly prone to galling. Hardening and polishing help but cannot eliminate it.  I remember when the firearms industry first moved to using stainless, there was a big problem with galling of the slide/frame rails in autoloading pistols.  One company marketed a special lube to use.  Manufacturers mitigated the problem by making those components of different alloy formulations. It helped.

Why does it occur with gears?  If you watch a set of helical gears (angled teeth) in motion, the point of contact "slides" across the face of the teeth. And, you are correct in that the sliding motion does move grease away from where it is needed.

Before I found this site I used good bearing grease and did not seem to have much problem with galling/wear.  Now that I use the Yamaha Marine grease Alan recommends there seems to be even less problem.  It is a good lube and is very thick so it stays in place better.  And, it's high temp melting point means it is not going to get soft/liquid and run out.

It seems to me one would see the most galling if one used the reel as a winch, creating the most pressure on the gear teeth.  If one cranks only after creating some slack in the line there is much less pressure on the gear teeth.

[BMITCH]

Franky, I have some gear mesh issues also. Noise, not so smooth. I have not tried this yet but thought it had some merit to it. This was pm'ed to me by WOTHoyt a little while back. You might want to try it. If you do please post your results.
Thanks, Bob


Go to NAPA or any professional auto parts store and ask for valve lapping compound.  Get a small tube... get ready because the man will always ask what you're gonna do with it because nobody uses it any more. 
 
Q-tip a dab all around the middle of the big drag gear and get it down into the teeth.   Keep it on the metal parts ONLY. Slap the bridge in and wind it about thirty times. You should be able to hear it smooth out while you're doing this.  If it still growls crank a few more times but this stuff cuts fast....be careful.  This actually removes material and makes the gear teeth real friendly with each other.

Then take it apart and clean with hot water, dish soap and a toothbrush.  Then repeat this procedure.   If you accidentally leave some of this in your reel, it'll keep cutting and make junk outta your fishing reel. You can use it to smooth out the yoke, eccentric and bridge interface. 

If you want to you can ask the NAPA man for a product call "compression blue" or whatever metal dye they may stock.  Before and after lapping you can use the metal dye to visually observe the gear mesh pattern and how it changes after lapping.  You'll actually get to see why those SS gears growl and what makes them purrrrrrr.

WOTHoyt

[franky]

Wow, such info.  Thanks guys.  I'll check it out...

Aloha,

[borchcl]

Compression blue = Prussian blue? It's a 'high spot' dye used in machine building and fitting. It's made by Dykem and Permatex, and others.
Charlie