Rules on assembly of locomotive type oscillation gears?

[Sea_Raven]

Hi there folks,

After about an hour of trial and error on a Quantum Salsa FD 830, I wonder: Are there rules for the correct first time assembly of locomotion oscillation mechanisms. Shimano puts small arrows on the main gear and the locomotion gear (found in the Shimano Exage). Just align the arrows - poof! Everything runs smooth!
But with this darn Quantum there was no hint..
First I didn't think much and just assembled the reel - lock up on winding. Then I tried and tried ending up with decent freewind but an unhealthy sound at the extreme shaft position when cranking against even small loads (spinner bait, for instance).
Now I did some more testing and think I've found a very good position - perfect free spool and the sound on cranking against load seems gone.

However, it leaves me back wondering: Is there a better way of assembly that'll fit on the first trial?
Honestly I also don't really fully understand what the problem was.

The position of the oscillation gear notch inside the shaft's traverse block? ->That would make sense. If the notch is at the extreme of the s-shaped cavern, it needs to be in an extreme position, else it would lock.
The position of the oscillation gear vs. the main gear? I don't really see why but shifting those two against each other seemed to make a difference.
The position of all three parts to each other?

Any advice is appreciated

[exp2000]

This is what I call the "square cog" design.

I think Shimano calls it Vari-Wrap but don't quote me on that because I don't really pay that much attention to company hype.

Both the drive gear and the oscillation gear have complimentary "elliptical" profiles. The purpose of this is to vary the oscillation speed of the spool so braid wraps lay on top of each other and cannot cut into lower layers of the loom. So you must position the cogs in correct alignment otherwise they will bind up or worse and may even cause damage if forced.

Not all their spinning reels have this feature. Those that do have alignment arrows on the gears. From memory, I am pretty sure that all their current generation Baitrunners do.

I am not aware of any special profiles regarding the oscillation carriage but I rarely work on Quantum reels.

Shimano clearly displays the gear alignment procedure in their schematics. Have you referred to schematics for your reel?
~

[Sea_Raven]

Thanks for your reply,
You're right, as I recall the Shimano has a "squary" oscillation gear, but the one from the Quantum looks perfectly round.
There is no advice in the (crappy) schematics.

So if the oscillation gear is round, I simply have to move the shaft to an extreme before installing the main gear?

[exp2000]

There is no special rule for assembling regular oscillation gears. Since they are round, no special alignment is required.

Sometimes varying the relative position of the pinion and maingear can make quite a difference to the smooth operation of a reel.
I think a wear pattern establishes itself which can be displaced when reassembling.

Could this be what you are experiencing?
~

[lifeofRiley]

All this is really interesting reading. A few months ago I was looking for answers to the binding issue on smaller Shimano spinners. I found many more possible answers than I expected. The most common issues I found that could cause the binding; moisture causing the friction ring underneath the rotor to swell, rough edges or burrs left after the machining process on gears or the shaft, factory grease causing sticking/binding under wet conditions, and another reel mechanic told me that it could be the result of egg shaped oscillation gears out of alignment with the main gear.

[Sea_Raven]

There is no special rule for assembling regular oscillation gears. Since they are round, no special alignment is required.

That's what I thought in the first place. I figured it must be like a worm-shaft oscillation system - it'll just start working no matter how you position the parts versus each other.
But then I had this "lock-up" problem on the initial assembly. Now I figure that I might have been the traverse block that was somehow misaligned.

Sometimes varying the relative position of the pinion and maingear can make quite a difference to the smooth operation of a reel.
I think a wear pattern establishes itself which can be displaced when reassembling.

Could this be what you are experiencing?
~

Yes, I think that was exactly what I was experiencing!
Since altering positions of the gears tooth for tooth did make a difference, I think we could put it down to this.

Also I am wondering now: Could it make a difference how tight(or loose) I lock the rotor nut on the pinion? I joust thought since it might "pull" the pinion that fraction of a millimeter to the front of the reel causing misalignment between the main gear and the pinion. To fine-tune the smoothness this would be easier than to re-align pinion and main gear.

Because it's really hard to tell how good you've done it until the rotor is fixed on the pinion. It makes such a vast difference on felt smoothness

[exp2000]

Yes, I think that was exactly what I was experiencing!
Since altering positions of the gears tooth for tooth did make a difference, I think we could put it down to this.

Also I am wondering now: Could it make a difference how tight(or loose) I lock the rotor nut on the pinion? I joust thought since it might "pull" the pinion that fraction of a millimeter to the front of the reel causing misalignment between the main gear and the pinion. To fine-tune the smoothness this would be easier than to re-align pinion and main gear.

Because it's really hard to tell how good you've done it until the rotor is fixed on the pinion. It makes such a vast difference on felt smoothness

This will not move the pinion at all. Even so there is considerable latitude in the gear cut for the pinion position relative to the crown gear.

You certainly do not want the rotor to be loose. But don't get carried away - just snug down and tighten till firm and forget about it.

The only gear adjustment on spinning reels is the shim washers under the bearing on the maingear. This determines how much clearance there is between the gear mesh. If this is too tight your reel will definitely feel stiff and even a little rough. Try removing a shim and see if this makes a difference. New bearings here can alter this clearance.
~