Fun with Mitchell Spinning Reels: formerly Mitchell Madness + 304 parts request

[foakes]

Hi Ron --

Make sure the trip lever is working free -- no burrs, grease, scoring, etc.

Put a slight backwards bend in the trip lever spring so it exerts a little more force.

Now, the likely culprit, since these other things have been eliminated and are working as well as possible --

The slot in the bail wire assembly that catches the trip lever -- when cocked for casting -- could be slightly rounded, instead of a squared off rabbet notch.

This can be carefully and slowly filed until the bail is holding in a casting position --

However, before doing this step -- take a flat pair of needle nose pliers -- and gently adjust (bend) the trip lever upwards slightly.  Over a period of years, the snap back of the bail will tend to bend the protruding part of the trip lever downwards -- so it will not work properly.

If everything is already free moving and clean, and oiled -- just the adjustment with the pliers of the trip lever should do the trick.

Let us know if this trick works -- otherwise show us some close up pics.

Good luck,

Fred

[newfuturevintage]

Thanks, Fred, I'll give those suggestions a whirl and report back!

Ron

[newfuturevintage]

I think I've got the 408 up and running!

Took your suggestions, Fred, and started with bending the spring.  Seems someone already had tried this, and it was pretty out-of shape.  I attempted to get it more in the pocket, and more or less was successful.  This seemed to help a little, but not all the way, so I bent the trip lever a little, and this got it nearly all the way there.  When I went to reassemble the trip assembly and snapped off the pivot screw in the rotor head. 

Oops.

It broke flush to the rotor, so I had to drill a little to score the remaining nub then work it out slowly with a midget screwdriver.  So at this point I needed a new screw, and could likely use a new spring.  Found a $7 set of screw/ spring/ trip lever on the bay. Bought one with a separate screw/washer instead of the older integrated style just in case. 

Here's the assembly installed.  I used the original trip lever as it worked a little better than the one I bought.


The replacement trip lever was an unjointed one that fit, but was a bit more rounded, and didn't actually work:


and the lever doin' its job:


Now to get this a light rod and try it out!

[foakes]

Good work, Ron -- the Mitchell 408 is a really nice reel.

High speed 5:1, good lines, bearing, dark blue -- not black like the 308, 2 step oscillation for flat line layering on the spool.

Best,

Fred

[newfuturevintage]

Good work, Ron -- the Mitchell 408 is a really nice reel.

High speed 5:1, good lines, bearing, dark blue -- not black like the 308, 2 step oscillation for flat line layering on the spool.

Best,

Fred

Got a chance to take this to a local pond and do a little casting with a kastmaster out of my inflatable kayak (read: lay down in what's essentially a 'water hammock' and lazily cast about while drifting and bobbing up and down). What a nice reel.  Super smooth, lot of fun to use.  Gonna put these on the radar now.  Well, these and another 410

Thanks again for the help!

Ron