Makaira 50 SEA

[gary760]

Yesterday I was fortunate enough to catch 2 big bluefin 400 to 500 lb
On a Makaira 50 SEa
This was spooled with 130lb topshot and the fish fought with up to 40lbs drag, after the second fish I find that the handle is very hard to turn
( even  with the drag in freespool)
I have stripped the real removed and  cleaned the gears checked the bearing
( this is a right hand side plate/ gearing issue) when I tighten the holder plate down on top of the gears
The handle becomes difficult to turn.
When i fit the pinion gears to the side plate it gets even more difficult to turn the handle.
Any ideas
Kindest regards Gary   

[David Hall]

Congratulations on the monster giant GBFT catches.  WOW,
I am not to familiar with the innards myself, and we don't have tuna that size in my local waters but that is one tough reel. That was some incredible strain you put on it though, fish that size are probably rarely caught on 50 size reels, I would think 130 would be more in line for fishing these Giants, you might have broke it, which is hard for me to fathom over stressing a Mak 50  but if there is any fish that can a 400-500lb GBFT is the one do it. As soon as our more experienced members read your post I am certain they will get you squared away in short order. Love to see some pictures of your catch.

[Bryan Young]

Have you tried reviewing this page. I'm thinking I know what's the problem but I need to look at the schematics further.

https://alantani.com/index.php?topic=750.0

[alantani]

send it to okuma!!!!

[gary760]

Have you tried reviewing this page. I'm thinking I know what's the problem but I need to look at the schematics further.

https://alantani.com/index.php?topic=750.0

Thankyou Brian, I looked at Alan's original teardown/rebuild post.
And I noticed one reply that had exactly the same problem
I looks like the brass brushing in the side plate may have screwed out reducing the total space between it and the holder plate. I had temporellaly come up with a fix by putting thin shim washers under the holder plate screws- ( I had done this on another Mak 50) but I will strip down again and check the brass brushing in the side plate.
Thank you again.
( oh a Mak50 is plenty reel for a 500lb bluefin in the era of hollow core they have even been caught on talica 50s ) but of course a commercial fisherman doing it day in day out will go with a 130 just bigger gears drags and more metal there. But for fun - these days 50 or 50W is very nice for a few fish a year

[gary760]

Well on stripping down I noticed that there was a very slight gap between the brass brushing and the frame, there were also flats on the brushing ( SEa variant)  so I assumed it was threaded - was difficult to turn but a quarter turn one way and the gap disappeared- I reassembled and every thing was perfect and smooth with no handle loading after fitting the gears and resembling
( no need for any shims under the holding plate)
I will attend to the other 50 that had the same issue in the same way.
Thank you Brian for your advice and the " can we fix it phot group " who suggested the solution on Alan's teardown and rebuild post
Kindest regards Gary

[Keta]

It sounds like you need to put some Locktite 242 on the threads.

[Bryan Young]

Glad I could help with "Alan's" tear down. 😁🤙🏽

[gary760]

It sounds like you need to put some Locktite 242 on the threads.

Yes I planned to d that but I could not get it to unscrew so just went for the quarter turn to tighten it.
Got another 2 bluefin ( much smaller) this weekend of 100 and 200 ( all our fish are released one of them was caught on the previously tight reel and it is still smooth with no loading so hopefully will be ok.

[gary760]

When I was reunited with my shimmed 50. I stripped the gears to access the bush, unscrewd it - applied a little locktite and reasembled without the shim and all is good-no handle binding