pinion vs main gear

[shootera3]

In a Penn reel, which goes bad first, pinion or main gear.

[JGB]

Neither. They go bad together. the only exception I have seen is if the pinion is ss and the main is brass and the reel is severely overloaded and the edges of the main get burred or rolled over. Anyway always replace gears as a set.
Jim N.

[Alto Mare]

Yes it is nice to take the guess work out and replace both gears as a set, I personally replace only what needs to be replaced and it has been working out for me. Gears are not made out of the same material and I believe that they do not ware the same. Some main gears on my Penn reels cost as much as $50 and so do the pinion gears, if you want to replace both....go for it. I'm going to inspect them closely, replace only what needs to be replaced and test the reel to see if the gears mesh ok. I would then take it from there.

[alantani]

agreed.  when i replace one, i always replace the other. 

[RWS]

Yes it is nice to take the guess work out and replace both gears as a set, I personally replace only what needs to be replaced and it has been working out for me. Gears are not made out of the same material and I believe that they do not ware the same. Some main gears on my Penn reels cost as much as $50 and so do the pinion gears, if you want to replace both....go for it. I'm going to inspect them closely, replace only what needs to be replaced and test the reel to see if the gears mesh ok. I would then take it from there.

Bad idea !!!!!!!!!! even if the one looks Ok it's not and then it will wear the the new one faster and will sound like a coffee grinder. ALWAYS REPLACE BOTH AS SET. If you want to play around with a batch of bad ones, mixing and matching them to see if can find ones that will work for a while go for it.

[Alto Mare]

Yes it is nice to take the guess work out and replace both gears as a set, I personally replace only what needs to be replaced and it has been working out for me. Gears are not made out of the same material and I believe that they do not ware the same. Some main gears on my Penn reels cost as much as $50 and so do the pinion gears, if you want to replace both....go for it. I'm going to inspect them closely, replace only what needs to be replaced and test the reel to see if the gears mesh ok. I would then take it from there.

Bad idea !!!!!!!!!! even if the one looks Ok it's not and then it will wear the the new one faster and will sound like a coffee grinder. ALWAYS REPLACE BOTH AS SET. If you want to play around with a batch of bad ones, mixing and matching them to see if can find ones that will work for a while go for it.

Good point! But I'm going to have to disagree with you. I do not have any problem replacing a set on smaller reels...and I believe you should, but on larger reels I have and believe that you will get away with replacing just what needs to be replaced. Gears are all cut to specs and Penn never sold them as a set in a bag. This is only my opinion and it is still working for me. I mentioned this same issue on my first tutorial here on the 16/0 and that was a while ago. That reel is still smooth as ever. Sal

[Irish Jigger]

I have replaced quite a few Penn 112H pinions which were split by overloading the reels. Always worked OK without replacing  the  main gears. No returns or complaints so far.
A bunch of cheapskates we are in Ireland.

[Keta]

Gears made of similar material and the same hardness will wear about the same per inch of circumference, the pinion gear will wear out faster due to it's smaller circumference.

With harder SS pinion gears and softer brass gears the pinion should rarely wear out unless contaminated with sand or an other abrasive substance.  That said, I usually replace gears as a set but not always.

[alantani]

In a Penn reel, which goes bad first, pinion or main gear.

but to actually answer your question, it is usually the main.  the softer brass main gear usually gives up against the harder stainless steel pinon ......  

[Alto Mare]

In a Penn reel, which goes bad first, pinion or main gear.

but to actually answer your question, it is usually the main.  the softer brass main gear usually gives up against the harder stainless steel pinon ......  

Right!
Sorry Alan! Thanks for bringing it back on track .