Silent dogs on newer penns.

[cwillis85]

Hello all, just received a brand new Squall 50 lever drag in the mail i picked up off fleabay for $50. The description said the antireverse wasn't working. I pull off the side plate and found that the brass arms that are part of the dogs was bent away from the ratchet. So i squeezed them together and now have a perfect brand new reel for a third of one at a store.  I was wondering if this is a normal issue for these reels. I bought a defiance a while back with the same issue but I plan to keep the squall and fish it. Should i do something to prevent this from happening or do the dog arms just sometimes leave the factory misshapen. Also this is my first lever drag so any advice on it is welcome.

[johndtuttle]

Hello all, just received a brand new Squall 50 lever drag in the mail i picked up off fleabay for $50. The description said the antireverse wasn't working. I pull off the side plate and found that the brass arms that are part of the dogs was bent away from the ratchet. So i squeezed them together and now have a perfect brand new reel for a third of one at a store.  I was wondering if this is a normal issue for these reels. I bought a defiance a while back with the same issue but I plan to keep the squall and fish it. Should i do something to prevent this from happening or do the dog arms just sometimes leave the factory misshapen. Also this is my first lever drag so any advice on it is welcome.

I haven't put a service tutorial up on the Squall LDs yet as I have been fishing one a bit first. The issue is that the dogs are held in by "keeper" screws that have to be removed before the pinion assembly can be removed, otherwise you will bend the ears of the dogs badly if you pull out what may seem to be unrelated parts.

Time will tell if there are any other issues but this sounds like a case of someone "bulling" ahead and bending the ears without understanding the sequence needed to get inside their reel.

[cwillis85]

Great, didn't want the antireverse to go out with a fish on the line. Wish i could find a way to add springs to the dogs so i had piece of mind with them, and then they would sing to me all day like my 750ss. 

[johndtuttle]

Great, didn't want the antireverse to go out with a fish on the line. Wish i could find a way to add springs to the dogs so i had piece of mind with them, and then they would sing to me all day like my 750ss. 

If you got creative with some light spring wire or some such you probably could come up with a solution for at least one of them.

[handi2]

Hello all, just received a brand new Squall 50 lever drag in the mail i picked up off fleabay for $50. The description said the antireverse wasn't working. I pull off the side plate and found that the brass arms that are part of the dogs was bent away from the ratchet. So i squeezed them together and now have a perfect brand new reel for a third of one at a store.  I was wondering if this is a normal issue for these reels. I bought a defiance a while back with the same issue but I plan to keep the squall and fish it. Should i do something to prevent this from happening or do the dog arms just sometimes leave the factory misshapen. Also this is my first lever drag so any advice on it is welcome.

Man you got a great deal on that one. The only thing I dislike about those reels is the dogs. Other than that they are good to go.! You shouldn't have anymore problems.

[rscotth]

The defiance and my Fathom have the horrible passive dog like the Ambassadors. No offence to anyone but I think they are crap and will eventually fail if you do much fishing. I'm an engineer and every well engineered product should have redundancy. This is why I didn't want to depend only on the anti reverse bearing.

I don't have a lever drag reel but have successfully converted the Defiance and Fathom into an active dog. I eventually went one step further and drilled a small hole in the dog for a secure spring attachment. See: http://alantani.com/index.php?topic=4846.0

One of my favorite reels is the Fathom and I did the same thing once I did my initial inspection and new reel maintenance. This mod will make the reel a bit louder since the dog is now "active" and it clicks about the same as a basic Senator.

Regards
RSH

[cwillis85]

I remember seeing your post originally now. I bought a defiance under the same circumstances and after fixing the dogs back to original, sold that flimsy feeling reel but the squall feels solid and i like it. I didn't think to use the type of spring you used, so duing my next service of it i will try this method.  I find it strange that i have purchased two never fished reels with this style dogs and they already failed, I would feel better with the reel clicking away so i know that it is working. Thanks