80TW - A look inside the International 80TW

[Nemo]

I thought I would take you through my recent experience with a new to me Penn International 80TW.  Here it is with its smaller sibling, the 50TW.



 My first impression was that it looked to be in pretty good shape.  I checked most of the external screws to see if any were stuck right after I got it.  All seemed OK except for the stand screws and studs.  Fast forward a few weeks and I finally get to sit down and go through it.  Stand screws wouldn't budge, so I let them soak for half a day with penetrating oil.  I thought for sure they were going to snap as I was backing them out, but luckily they didn't.  I did think there was some thread damage, however.  Here is what I found.





And the frame, very corroded.



Here is the after.  It appeared to have heavy white salt/corrosion buildup that couldn't be brushed away.  I had to take a razor knife and scrape it away, along with part of the anodizing.  



Here is the progression as I went through the rest of the reel.

Everything laid out, ready to begin.



Reel separates easily into four pieces.



Left sideplate bearing, French?  Factory or replacement?  All bearings were the same as this one.





Everything looked good, so it gets greased as well as the inside of the left plate.



Moving on to the spool.



Removed the clicker plate and bearing, everything got greased and reassembled.



Now, the left side of the spool.  As I was disassembling the parts, I noticed a lot of regular grease in the drag area.  Not good.



The drag washers had a fair amount of oily residue on them.


I set them aside and proceeded to clean and grease the spool ,bearing and bottom of drag plate.





I cleaned the drag washers by wiping them off as much as possible, and then used a hair dryer to heat them up and hopefully get out most of any remaining oil and grease.  These washers were a hard carbon fiber, not the softer weave that was in the 50TW.  Is this the dura drag material, or original HT-100?



Drag washer greased with Cal's, as well as the spool edges adjacent to the washer.



And the rest of the drag is assembled, with grease where needed.









Completed left plate and spool.



Now, on to the right plate.





Everything is disassembled, cleaned, and greased.





Now, the four parts ready to go back together.



I used a tap and die to clean up the threads of the salt corroded stand screws and frame.  Luckily, everything went back in fine, this time with PLENTY of grease under the stand and on the screws.  If you get nothing else out of this, GREASE THIS AREA.  Or, take it down for cleaning fairly frequently.  

This wasn't a typical piece by piece tutorial, as many of the steps I left out have been covered in the rebuild threads of Alan's and others.  This reel seems to be extremely simple and strong.  I left the spring washers in their stock position, as the drag felt very strong as is.  I will probably check it with a scale later on, just to see what it is capable of.  Looking forward to trying this one out!

[redsetta]

Great post Nemo - these reels are a pleasure to work on (and fish).
Cheers, Justin

[Norcal Pescador]

I'm pretty sure the drag is HT-100. The Dura-Drag has a finer weave if I'm remembering right.  

[kamuwela]

great job and thank you. the drag washer doesnt look like a dura drag but  look's like it's glazed to me. the one's i get in that shape i load up the cals and rub like mad. i noticed the more you buff it the weave come's back. you will notice  your rag get's real black. then put on a light coat and wipe excess off. the corrosion is acutally not that bad. ive seen the right side plate almost rotten right thru. most of the water intrusion enter's thru the handle area, between the shaft and handle. the fiber washer doesnt stop all the water and eventually enter's thru the outter bearing.

                                                                     mahalo
                                                                      kamu

[Alto Mare]

great job and thank you. the drag washer doesnt look like a dura drag but  look's like it's glazed to me. the one's i get in that shape i load up the cals and rub like mad. i noticed the more you buff it the weave come's back. you will notice  your rag get's real black. then put on a light coat and wipe excess off. the corrosion is acutally not that bad. ive seen the right side plate almost rotten right thru. most of the water intrusion enter's thru the handle area, between the shaft and handle. the fiber washer doesnt stop all the water and eventually enter's thru the outter bearing.

                                                                     mahalo
                                                                      kamu

Kamu, you know this reel more than anybody I know; is there anything that can be done to help with the water intrusion? Maybe a different washer, or additional washers?

[Nemo]

[kamuwela]

changing the washer set up will help some but the inner side is alot larger then the shaft. im sure if you change the felt washer every time you service it  you will stop most of it. make sure to leave the shield's on the outter bearing, this should stop most of it. check out the 50t i did here, that was a salt eating monster. the first few pic's tell the story. these reel's show exactly why we should pre service.

[Alto Mare]

Thanks Kamu! That tutorial on the 50T was one of the first stops I made when I joined this great site. Keep up your excellent work Kamu... you really know your Internationals.

[kamuwela]

alan made me do it 

[alantani]

you have a very old reel with a very old carbon fiber drag washer.  i'm a little hazy on the dates, but the old penn drag washers had too much glue on them, which is why they looked glazed. 

there are two types of penn ht-100 drag washers.  the penn jigmaster thickness is a single layer.  it's a thick weave, but a single layer nonetheless.  the penn senator thickness is made of three layers.  there is a fiberglass core with a thinner layer of carbon fiber glued to both sides.  up until about 10 years ago, they used so much glue that the glue would squeeze inbetween the pores of the carbon fiber when it was pressed together and then heat cured.  that's why even the brand new drag washers looked glazed.  the newer three-layer drag washers now have a proper amount of glue.  to look at them, you might not even notice that one is thicker than the other. 

in terms of what to do with this reel, it should be fine to just rub off all the excess crud off the the drag washers that you have, then apply a light coat of cal's grease and then just rub off all the excess.  even when glazed, the carbon fiber should still work as long as it has a layer of cal's grease. 

[Dweezy]

I took apart an old 80tw to rebuild.  Now, the drag is way too tight.  With lever at strike on lowest drag setting i have trouble pulling line out of reel.  I disassembled and reassembled to try and see if I put it together wrong but could not find anything.  Any suggestions?

[alantani]

how are the bellevilles oriented, "()()" or "(())"?

[Dweezy]

Those thingies are ()() like that.

[Dweezy]

It could be possible that the drag was like that before i took it apart.  I just purchased the reel used and it was manufactured in 1990.  Is it possible for the cam to be assembled wrong or the cam to be bad?

[kamuwela]

the cam is 180 out push it forward to strike or full, when it free spools reset the lever.