Penn 100 Surfmaster Bearings

[Limey]

Hello Alan and Co.

It's Limey here from the UK asking for help.

I run a couple of old Penn 100 Surfmasters and a 200 Surfmaster for some of my beach fishing. I like the reels as they hold a good ammount of 25lb Line and have a powerful retreive. The only problem that I experience is that the bearings seem to knock and rattle after a couple of dozen hard casts. I have repleaced them and the problem is the same. I clean and lube after each session and even adda extra lube during fishing. I have tried grease and varying viscosities of oil.

I'm using 13' all carbon rods rated for 4-8oz to throw 6oz of lead about 140yrds. I'm guessing that I might be asking a bit much of the old brass bushes to perform like a modern ball bearing race. I'm told that Newell produced some teflon or ceramic bearings for the surfmaster called EM bearings but I have no idea if any are still available or where to get them.

Can anyone help?

Many  thanks

Limey

[akfish]

A couple things to look at: First, are you setting the end bushings so that there is a tiny bit of side-to-sde slop on the spool? You're supposed to do that with all of the classic Penn conventionals. If you cinch them down as an anti-backlash device, you'll ruin the bushings very quickly. Second, are the spools still true? Those reels had a tough time with mono and if your spools are out of round, the bushings will go very quickly. Finally, Newell did make some teflon bushings that do improve things a bit. I don't believe they are made any longer but you can often find them new on eBay. Dave, a guy who has the eBay name "jambythesea" often has them. Good luck and tight lines.

[Limey]

Many thanks.

The spools are alloy models and were all purchased new by me. They always have end float and I have intalled a couple of rare earth magnets in the side plate. I have also replaced the bearings with new.  I'll try to get hold of the guy you mention on e-bay.

Tight lines all

Limey