finnor regal

Started by alantani, December 07, 2008, 05:04:16 PM

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alantani

we all have challenges in life.  some are more personal than others.  meet mine.



i don't know the history of these reels, other than that they spent 30 years in a closet and were headed for the trash heap.  the captain that sent then to me said the last guy that tried to fix them spent a year and got nowhere.  well, i only beat the last guy by 3 months.  yup, been staring at these reels for 9 months.   and i finally finished them!

i've worked on about a dozen of these before.   there is one particular gentleman living just north of san francisco that likes to collect these.  he will buy a reel on ebay and send them to me for a "clean and lube."  the cork drags had always been sticky, so what i had done was to cut small radial lines in the cork so that the would not stick so badly.  not as smooth as greased carbon fiber, but the radial cuts definitely helped.   that was then, this is now.  these reels were going to be fished.  that meant the drags had to be smooth with a heavy load.  that meant greased carbon fiber.  i had the drag washers.  what i needed was a glue.

last year i installed a carbon fiber drag washer into a regal 12 using a red adhesive that was given to me by a friend.  i called him back, but he said he could not remember the name of the product.  so i tried epoxy several times and got nowhere.  the epoxy just did not hold.  i was thinking about using 5200 marine adhesive, but knew it would never hold up under high temperatures.  i thought of gorilla glue, but it looked too hokey.  i called the new company that is taking over for finnor and no one would call me back.  then last month, i found a loctite brochure that talked about adhesives, read through it, spoke to the company directly and decided to try a $50 box of loctite 330.  well, it worked.  



all three reels got a complete tear down, then an ultrasonic bath to clean away all the old corrosion, then a rebuild with grease in every screw hole and every nook and cranny that held salt and corrosion before.  the regal 12's got stainless steel clamps, the larger finnor actually took a narrower clamp.  



the tear down for the regal 12 is pretty straight forward.  first, remove the preset knob, the cam and the lever.





remove the four left side plate screws and the left side plate.





clean out the bearings, chisel out the cork drag washer, grind down the outer diamter of a pair of #6-25 penn ht-100 drag washers to fit,  glue them in with loctite 330 and clamp it down until it sets.  after an hour or so, grind out the inside diamter, slap on a thick coat of shimano drag grease, wipe off the excess grease and pray that there are no high spots,  it needs to be perfectly flat.  not bad, huh!



the larger finnor (and i don't know the model number) was actually easier to work on.  first off comes the handle assembly.



next comes the pinion gear and retaining screw.



four screws are all that holds on the left side plate.



out comes the spool assembly.



the old cork drag had to chiseled off, the surface cleaned, a new carbon fiber drag washer has to be glued on, and then greased.  the drag washer is from the penn 15 kg.  a stainless steel spring replace the brass spring that came stock with the reel.



belleville spring washers replaced the single metal thrust washer.



the cam assembly comes in two pieces.





the spool assembly goes in.



replace the pinion gear and screw.







reinstall the handle.  sadly, the main gear has a chipped tooth.  you can feel it click every time the reel handle comes around to the 1 o'clock position.  the bearing is also very rough, but you can't tell because the anti-reverse dogs make enough racket to wake the dead!



because the penn drag washer was only half the thickness of the original cork washer, i had to install a spacer into the right side plate to take up that extra room.  it was the little stuff like this that took so many hours to figure out!



note one of the anti-reverse dogs at the 9 o'clock position, and the dog spring extending from the 6 o'clock position up to the dog.  



the other dog spring was busted.  i know it looks a little cheesy, but the new dog spring is actually a little stronger than the stock one.  



and done!  



the hardest part of this was to find a glue that worked.  getting everything spaced properly is also quite a challenge.  my new ultrasonic cleaner makes quick work of the corrosion and grunge.  overall, these are not easy reels to work on.  it's tough having to make so many changes at once.  one of the regal 12's had a max of 8 pound of drag at full before losing freespool.  the other had over 20 pounds.  and the larger finnor had a pretty flat drag curve, with a maximum drag range of 13 to 18 pound of drag as you pushed the lever from one quarter to full.  one thing for sure, the drag washers were very smooth.
send me an email at alantani@yahoo.com for questions!

heckrazr

#1
Alan,

Do you think that the Regal 12 and the 12-20 light are of the same design? They appear to be similar if not the same. I have a 12-20 light that's in great shape except for when you bring the lever all the way down to freespool it kind of sticks before releasing. Any ideas on that?

Thanks

Dave
Maui is where the heart and soul belong.....very soon

alantani

we really need someone (like the manufacturer) to make an investment in time and inventory towards maintaining these old reels.  these things need a total tear down, clean, lube and rebuild before even thinking about modifications.  that will tell you if it's even fixable.
send me an email at alantani@yahoo.com for questions!

Robert Janssen

Quote...when you bring the lever all the way down to freespool it kind of sticks before releasing. Any ideas on that?

...or it might just be gummed up with a little crud on the shaft where the it slides back and forth through the bearings. Try a quick shot of WD-40 or similar right there to see if it just loosens things up a little.

.

heckrazr

Alan,
Found the problem.  There was residual glue on the edge of the spool left from replacing the cork drag at some point. I scraped it off with my fingernail and boom, no hesitation when putting into freespool. I took pics so maybe I'll start a new thread on the 12-20 Light Fin-Nor.  I also found that the double dog setup is a bit different than the Regal.

Dave
Maui is where the heart and soul belong.....very soon