Penn GTO 230 issues

[Jason Groombridge]

G'day All,

I got a Penn GTO 230 in for repair a few weeks back. The complaint was "slipping a gear". I thought the guy meant that the AR was not working properly and that was a bit messy so I cleaned it up and sent it back to the tackle shop. When I opened the reel there was quite a bit of brass shavings floating around. The reel was very dry, almost no grease on the gears. I thought at the time that the brass was from gear wear due to little lubrication.

Anyway, the reel was returned to the tackle shop with the same problem. I collected it, stripped it and the main gear is quite worn, with burrs on top of the teeth. The pinion looks OK, but being SS I guess most of the wear would be on the brass main gear.

I can't see any evidence of the gears slipping and I'm not quite sure how it could happen anyway. The main and pinion are kept in alignment pretty securely and I would think there would have to be a lot of flex somewhere in the system for the gears to skip. The reels is spooled with 50lb mono, which may be part of the problem. I don't reckon this reel can handle 17lbs of drag. I would have thought the gear sleeve would start to round off first but it hasn't. Maybe the initial wear was from lack of lubrication and this has changed the tooth shape on the gear and allowed them to skip???

My thoughts are that I replace the main and pinion gear and send it back with a note saying that it can't be run past 5kg of drag. Does this sound reasonable? I just don't want it to happen again and me being left holding the can and having to pay to replace gears again.

Are there any other areas on the reel I need to look at or something else I'm missing that could be causing this problem?

Any help appreciated.

Cheers

Jason

[handi2]

It could be the spool slipping in the pinion gear. I've seen this a lot with charter boat reels. The spool would need replacing.

[Rancanfish]

I never thought of that Keith(or seen it).  Are you saying the square shoulders get rounded off a bit?

[RowdyW]

I think he means the shaft is slipping inside the spool. Then the only way is to replace the spool or cross drill the spool arbor & install a dowel pin.           Rudy

[handi2]

I never thought of that Keith(or seen it).  Are you saying the square shoulders get rounded off a bit?

Yes the shoulders of the spool get worn out and it acts just like a gear slipping.

When I'm respooling the reels and the spool is bad it will make a racket when the shoulders skip around in the pinion gear. It won't happen until the reel is under load.

I've changed spools about 6 times with reels that have been used hard.

[Jason Groombridge]

G'day All,

Thanks for your replies.

I don't think it is the spool slipping in the pinion gear. The shoulders on the spool shaft and the pinion look fine with nice sharp edges, no rounding off. It could very well be, as Rowdy suggested, the spool spinning on its shaft.

I think I will have to re-assemble it, whack it on a rod and try and duplicate the problem. That should give me a better idea.

Cheers

Jason

[handi2]

Put the right side of the reel together and tighten the drag tight by inserting the spool into the pinion gear. Now hold the assembled right side tight and turn the spool by hand to see if it is slipping on its shaft.

[Jason Groombridge]

Nup, looks like Handi2 picked it. It is the spool slipping out of the pinion gear.

Thanks for your help guys.

Cheers

Jason

[handi2]

I found this problem after working on so many charter boat reels. Everything will look fine but when I go to spool the reel it jumps out of gear. Most of the time it's the spool.

[Jason Groombridge]

G'day Handi2,

There wasn't much visually wrong with the spool shoulders or pinion, but it was obviously enough to make it jump. I found it really hard to tell what was happening too. When I put the reel on a rod and loaded it up, it jumps around so fast that it does feel like gears slipping. It is amazing how quickly the spool does a 180 degree rotation!

Thanks again for your help.

Cheers

Jason

[akfish]

I see this frequently on 340s and 345s that are used for halibut with 80# line. I think the spool starts to wear when you shift the reel into free spool under heavy load -- perhaps to get line to tie to a cleat to break free from a snag.

[Jason Groombridge]

Most of these type of reels are used for trolling here. I suspect that people let their lures out and then, instead of slowing the spool with a thumb, just slam the reel into gear. I reckon that's what has been happening with this reel.

Cheers

Jason