Shimano TLD 30 2 spd, noises in left side

[retiredandfishing]

Just got this TLD 30 2 speed in the shop.  Operates fine until serious drag is applied.  Then it makes for lack of a better word, crackling sound from the left side as you crank and if you reel slowly you can feel a jerkyness.  At least I think it's coming from the left side, which is weird because there is nothing over there that could do that, just the clicker.  I put new spool bearings (3) in thinking maybe one of them was bad but that didn't help.  The pinion bearing seems fine, no binding or noise.  It operates fine as long as you don't apply any extreme drag.  Trouble is this is a serious big halibut reel for a guy in Alaska and he needs a lot of drag. The only other thing wrong about this reel is that the Shimano decal is missing from the left side and it covers a hole that the spool shaft sits in.  So that when it's  missing you can see the end of the spool shaft.

Any thoughts or idea's on this would be great.

[handi2]

Personally I wouldn't recommend that reel for a high drag. The frame has broken doing this.

Keith

[retiredandfishing]

Going to replace the pinion bearing just to see what happens, then inspect for cracks around the left side spool shaft seat.

[handi2]

I bet someone that knows more than me about Halibut fishing will chime in.

I think it would be fine in low gear.

Keith

[retiredandfishing]

Worked on the reel again today. Swapped out the whole right side from another reel in the shop just like it. Yep, no noise.  So then I took the suspect right side and put it on the good reel.  Got noise. So it has to be something in the right side making that noise.

I did see some pretty good wear marks on the side of the anti reverse pawl on the bad reels' right side. As if it is rubbing on something.  No marks on the other reel's pawl.  So tomorrow I'll remove the anti reverse pawl and see what happens.  If that doesn't do it, I'll swap out the pinion bearing and then the gear set if that doesn't work.

I will try low gear and see what happens too.

[retiredandfishing]

Turns out it was the pinion bearing.  The bearing had no problems when drag was applied, did not bind at all, just put out a crackling noise. Which somehow seemed to be coming from the right side, my bad hearing I guess.

I swapped that bearing out with another from the same type reel that I knew was OK. The reel that had been having problems had none, the reel I swapped the bad pinion bearing in to did.