What Reel Makes You Cringe — Before Service & Restoration?

[nelz]

Serviced a Penn Levelmatic and WOW. The frames on these reels are the biggest PITA to re-assemble properly! They are bolted/screwed together and took me several attempts to get the levelwind to slide properly upon re-assembly.

The bar that guides the top of the line guide does not lock into proper position, so whenever you tighten the screws/nut it moves out of alignment and locks up the line guide. Lousy design flaw!

There's plenty more to gripe about on servicing these reels, but this will do for now!

On a positive note, the dog mechanism is super-reliable, also very strong for such a small reel.