Don't wait as long as I did. A story.

[Rancanfish]

Well, way back when Alan started sharing his knowledge I was lucky enough to hang out at a couple of reel seminars,  and help out once when he was working the Sportsmans Expo.  I actually felt pretty confident and Tani-ized a bunch of reels, when that just meant a simple drag upgrade and greasing everything, lol.  But then life got in the way,  and I have not worked on any of my reels,  just fished them.  I'm talking years and years.  I thought ALL my reels were good to go......

Well I just bought some Accuframes from Randy for my 501s.  I decided today I would get my reels cleaned up for next years Salmon.  I greased all the screws, etc.  I got to the drags on both and discovered they were both original dry stack.  Never having issues over a few years,  I assumed I had already done them.  Anyway the mistakes showed up when I tried reassembling.  I made the dog fall out and land next to the gear sleeve making it impossible to get back together, I dropped the bridge screws repeatedly, I dropped only the tiniest parts, discovered carb cleaner eats plastic, and enjoyed the hell out of myself, until the wife got home.  I had decided to jump into an old 500s at the last minute but was getting tired and couldn't  get it back together either until I realized I put the spacer bar screws back in before slapping the sideplate up to it,  lol.

Don't wait as long as I did to play with your stuff.  Lucky for me I always rinsed my reels and only had minor salt intrusion, and almost no pitting resulted.  I was really surprised in the variation of assembly and materials and stars.  So here I go again........and oh,  I didn't spend a dime.

[alantani]

wow, those expos were a long time ago! 

[Rancanfish]

And I couldn't tell how long to save my life. 

[alantani]

the kids were little.  figure 12-14 year ago.....