DAMAGED SPOOL

[Cor]

If the spool spins good in another frame it could be possible that the frame got racked a bit. Try twisting your side-plates in opposite directions. It may get better or it may get worse. If it gets worse, twist it in the other direction. I use to have these issues with Penns when I installed Newell frames. If you have good free-spool you can do this while it's spinning and you'll see if it's helping or hurting. Once you find the sweet-spot tighten the screws a bit.
Good luck
-Mike

Yes that is very possible and I have been looking at that.   If you look at the photos above, the one point of impact was on the  spool adjusting knob.   If that got even very slightly distorted in the frame it could for sure cause a problem.    That houses the outside pinion bearing and the pinion is very long, about 2 cm.   Therefore if the pinion is ever so slightly out of alignment it will put pressure on the spool shaft and I have "looked" at it at least 10 times.

What perhaps goes together with this......If I leave the opposite side plate off, IOW the left side of the spool is unsupported by a bearing it spins freely and perfectly with only the pinion and main bearing supporting the spool.

Ok now away from computor!

[oc1]

Did you ever say what kind of reel it is?
-steve

[Rancanfish]

He mentions the Tranx in the first post, but I've never seen one up close and personal.

[Cor]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8xvvb4ZIns&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8xvvb4ZIns&feature=youtu.be

Wanted to show the "wobble" in the end of the spool shaft.   What you're seeing is the end of the pinion sticking out through the bearing, with the spool shaft being turned with my finger.

[oldmanjoe]

   2 blocks of wood and make  a V notch in each one .

[Cor]

Something is bent or out of alignment, but it is slight and I can just not find it.   
Finally I have some progress and will probably leave it as is.

By changing the spool in to a different reel's frame I realised that the old one had a definite "spot" where it got resistance when spinning and would stop at the same spot every time when turning slowly.    Also with the spool in the other frame the free spool was significantly better and it made less noise when casting, which confused me and made me think that perhaps it is the frame and not the spool after all.   I could still not locate a specific problem area though, no damage,  rubbing or scarring was visible.

I spent the whole day tinkering on this and in the afternoon returned to checking the gap between the spool and the frame and decided that is the most likely issue.   I took a bit of a chance and removed a fraction of a millimetre from the edge of the spool.   This caused the scraping sound to decrease and I realised that I have probably located the problem in the most obvious part where I looked the fist day and I was also told to check!

The reel now has acceptable free spool, casts fine and no longer makes that scraping sound.    It is not perfect but its risky to remove more metal from the spool and for the time being I leave it as is.

I suspect that both the frame or body of the reel and spool have some distortion but I don't really know precisely where.

Photo showing how I did the spool.

Thanks to everyone for some excellent input and I will probably sometime make a device with V blocks and a micrometer.