Bantam 100 mod question

[Hytekrednek]

Hello. I have my grandfather's like new Shimano Bantam 100, and another I got from ebay for a fair price. I have upgraded the drag and the bearings in both, and put an Avail spool on one of them. The spool made a big difference.  Anyway, the only shortcoming this reel has in my eyes compared to modern reels is the type of anti-reverse. Instant anti-reverse is so much nicer to have, but they both work fine. Is there any way to upgrade an old Bantam 100 to include constant anti-reverse? Of coarse with money and skill, anything can be done to it. I am asking can it be done for an amount that I can live with, say $200.  No, I am not looking for a different reel or a newer reel. I have many top shelf new reels.
 I love these tiny old Bantam 100's. If it can be upgraded, I would like to do it.  NO, It does not make good financial since to do. I can get a reel to fish with for $25, but yet I have a few that cost $500+   Its what I want.
Thanks for any help or ideas.
Shaun

[jurelometer]

Haven't played with a Bantam, but would expect that you would need to fabricate a new sideplate.  It still might not work that great if this reel has a gear sleeve and not a solid shaft.  Remember that the bearing has to be able to slide along the length of the shaft a bit in order to allow the drag to be adjusted. You would probably also have to fabricate a keyed sleeve to go between the one-way bearing and the shaft.

It looks like this reel has a silent dog.  You might have better luck finding a spot to put a second dog in there.  If you position it just right, you will cut the backplay in half. 

Silent dogs need to be positioned fairly accurately in terms of distance and height relative to the ratchet.  Silent dog systems are a bit finicky and not completely reliable.  But then, neither are one-way bearing setups

-J

[JasonGotaProblem]

I happen to have a bantam 100 and a bin of various sized one way bearings. I haven't come up with a good answer for you. You're probably looking at a new sideplate or at the minimum a 3d printed part that attaches to a modified sideplate. The small single disk drag on these reels won't allow it to see all that much stress. So something you whip up might be viable. Or at least more so than it might be on a reel used for winching stuff off the bottom.

[Gfish]

Here's mine. It doesn't look like there's enough space in the existing side-plate handle extension. So you might haveta do some serious side plate engineering. It's a very small baitcaster and the back-play on mine seems to only be about 10-15 degrees. I think instant AR would be nice, but is it really nessassery?

[Gfish]

Gfish Bantam 100

[Gfish]

They do have a gear sleeve, Dave. But they call it a "drive shaft". A great little baitcaster IMO, and almost completely plastic/graphite free.

[JasonGotaProblem]

One difference between the ambassadeurs with a ratchet and those with an IAR is the latter has a longer drive shaft. A key to victory here might be finding a reel with similar but longer drive shaft... And then finding one in stock, as a starting point. A longer shafted star drag reel with an iar you can steal. (Or at least the inner sleeve of the IAR if it's pressed in) is a bigger step closer.

[steelfish]

keeping an eye on this, altho seems like a pretty difficult task it would be awesome if can be done

[jurelometer]

I was hoping not to have to dive into more detail, but here goes:

The small form factor one way bearings of the type that they use on handle shafts don't have an inner race: the rollers lock on the shaft instead.  But if the shaft is threaded or keyed where the rollers need to do their thing, the rollers are not going to grab and lock properly.

The typical way to solve this issue is to fabricate a sleeve that is round on the outside, and keyed on the inside, so that it can slide along the shaft, but cannot turn independently from it. This will provide an inner race for the rollers to grab, and also allow the drag to loosen when you back off the star when the bearing is locked. Otherwise, the  locked bearing maintains the clamping load on the drag stack, meaning that you cannot adjust the drag when the fish is pulling.

Once you have designed the inner side of the one-way bearing design, you will have the inner diameter needed for the one-way bearing.  Check a bearing suppliers specs, and you will see what is available in terms of the OD and width for that ID.  The outer dimension will have to fit inside of that protruding sleeve on the sideplate, in a pocket with flat sides corresponding to those on the bearing  so that it will prevent the outer race from spinning when locking/unlocking. The fit will have to be close to keep the bearing square, but with a little room so that the bearing can slide back-and-forth, allowing the drag to be adjusted under load.  The bearing width probably cannot be larger than whatever spacer is currently in there.

So maybe you will be able to cut out that sideplate sleeve and solidly attach a larger one to accommodate the one-way bearing, but that new sleeve is probably going to be quite large in order to accommodate the bearing.

This will all have to be done accurately with reasonably tight tolerances, so that the bearing will lock and unlock.  And if the gear sleeve to post tolerance is not very tight (most are not), you will already have an uphill battle.

If you don't have the right equipment and skills to do all this,  and take into consideration any other issues that I haven't thought of, you will most likely just end up with a trashed Bantam.  If you are successful, it's probably not going to be as pretty of a reel.

Hope this helps,

-J

[Hytekrednek]

Thanks for the info and thoughts on this subject. I do not want to change the looks so much that it looks ugly and "messed with". I would want it done cleanly for sure. I will have to think on it before I decide what to do. Adding a second dog that is 1/2 position off sounds like the easier mod if there is room for it.

I recall the first reel I ever got with instant anti reverse, a Quantum F/X 400 I think. Dark grey and wide, it was not small. Once I got to use it, I was blown away. My 5500c just seemed like an antique and sloppy compared to the new Quantum. It was a similar feeling as to when I got my first Shimano Calais in 1999. I was blown away! I still have and use that Calais, and it is still smooth as silk, tough as nails, and a beauty to the eyes even after lots of use for many years.

I will take the Bantam 100 with me next time I go fishing and really pay attention to its use and whether or not I want to spend the money for modding it. Thanks again guys.