troubleshooting slight grinding on Penn Jigmaster 500

stevennc · May 02, 2014, 09:43:37 PM

I have 2 jigmasters. 1 cranks relatively smoothly, the other has a slight grinding to it. I pulled it apart and put it back together twice making sure the washers were all in place, I tried different size spacing sleeves, and different size washers under the main gear. The gears themselves appear to be in great shape.

What could cause the slight grinding? Could it be caused by a worn yoke , or springs placing the wrong pressure on the yoke? Im going to swap the gears in the jigmasters to double check whether or not its the gears.

stevennc · May 03, 2014, 01:45:34 AM

Ok swapped the gears and turns out it is the gears that are making the slight grinding. Deciding whether this is a big deal or not. As far as parts go, are the chrome over brass parts better than the plain brass? As in the chrome / silver colored bridges and other internals from older 500s.

Lensters · May 03, 2014, 08:22:05 AM

Try some valve lapping compound on the gears. Be careful that it gets only on the gears. Run them with some load for a while (15-20 minutes). Then do a complete re-clean and re-lube of the reel. You don't want to leave any grit in the reel when you're done. Or you can just leave them as they are and over time they will smooth out by themselves.

alantani · May 03, 2014, 11:00:14 PM

ugghhhh! i've tried to smooth out old gears and i finally just gave up. it seems that once they're damaged, they rumble forever. the only real answer is to replace them..... $:-\$

foakes · May 04, 2014, 01:14:33 AM

For noisy or rough gears --

Occasionally in the past I have ultrasonically cleaned the Main & Pinion really good. Then inspected each one under a magnifying device for damage or issues. Tried to file or Dremel out any areas apparently rough -- then cleaned again -- reassembled with NO grease on the gears -- attached to one of my line winders -- and ran for about 10 minutes at various speeds.

Then -- cleaned the gears again -- re-assembled -- and greased with Yamaha Marine grease -- and ran on the line winder for another 10 minutes.

Frankly, this only works about 50% of the time -- and I don't have the time or patience to justify spending time on something that will only work in half of the cases -- so the gear replacement is the way to go for a repair shop. For an individual -- you might be able to spend the time to get it back to about 75% of where it should be.

Plus, with the nature of gears and pre-worn metals -- they tend to go back to making a rough mesh after awhile -- and I end up having to repair it for my client the right way anyway...so I just replace both gears about 90% of the time. Gears are not that expensive.

No issues -- done right -- happy fisherman.

Best,

Fred

Lensters · May 04, 2014, 01:51:43 AM

Quote from: alantani on May 03, 2014, 11:00:14 PM
ugghhhh! i've tried to smooth out old gears and i finally just gave up. it seems that once they're damaged, they rumble forever. the only real answer is to replace them..... $:-\$

What about brand new gears? That is where I've run into problems.

stevennc · May 04, 2014, 09:36:23 PM

Well I went through some parts reel and struck gold. I have two pretty beat up 500 reels with plastic spools that I completely forgot about. They look like they have never seen a fresh water rinse , and chips and cracked sidplates. But internally they are golden. So I took them apart and found some really interesting internals. One plain steel gear with slight pitting and corrosion , and one stainless steel one. It is not chrome over brass. Score! The washers in these are interesting. Not leather or fiber..... are they Teflon?

maxpowers · May 04, 2014, 09:48:50 PM

I recently bought a set of the same gears as the middle one. Bryan said they were chrome over steel? Anyway they went into my Newell P338 as I like the 4:1 better than the 5:1 gears. The steel gear on the left is in nice shape too. I like those much better than the brass ones and should be stronger than the brass gears.

stevennc · May 04, 2014, 11:03:14 PM

Ya It could be chrome over steel. The gear looks very similar to the newell one without the inner sleeve. It was magnetic so it wasnt brass or bronze. the plain steel is definitely a keeper. Just needs a little TLC. It was smooth when I pulled it. The pitting is a slight problem, though I doubt it will be noticeable in the drag.

stevennc · May 07, 2014, 05:45:28 AM

I tried seeing what putting one under load would do, but have yet to try a lapping compound. I managed to get my kayak reels swapped out with some nice gears, and made a leaded line reel for trolling trout with parts. I think I can live with the slight grinding. I cant expect the smoothness I get from my newer reels.