Hardy Altex no.1 mk IV complete teardown and refurbish!

[Woodbilly]

How much time they spent to make a reel like this .It's amazing that most of parts seem to make by hand tool

True! That's why I love stripping these old reels down. It's like going back in time at the workbench.

[oldmanjoe]

   I have always gravitated towards mechanisms , love the looks and appreciate the thought process that went to build them .  I try not to polish them to much , it make it much easier to slap them on a stick and fish them ...      Again nice work .

[Woodbilly]

  I have always gravitated towards mechanisms , love the looks and appreciate the thought process that went to build them .  I try not to polish them to much , it make it much easier to slap them on a stick and fish them ...      Again nice work .

I use em no matter how nice or rare.

[Woodbilly]

More progress on the Hardy Altex no.1 restore and a few things learned along the way...

Attached dust cover and installed flier assembly to reel body.

After attaching the dust cover and test fitting flier, I noticed when rotating the flier, it was making contact with something.. After careful examination, I noticed the dust cover screws were dome head and interfering with rotation of flier. I checked my other micro screws and they were all dome head or had a step shoulder, so none of those.
I checked parts installed on the completed flier for misplaced screws and, "bingo!", there were the flat top screws I was looking for! I had mistakenly used them on the bail arm drive gear cover. Same threads, different head shape.
The flat top screws sit flush with the dust cover, when snugged down, and cause for clean rotation. In my previous pictures of flier assembly, you can see misplaced flat top screws on external gear cover picture. Oops!

Next learn as you go lesson. Setting the mechanical bail arm trip gear, so it properly trips the bail during retrieval. If this gear is not "timed" correctly with the bail arm external drive gear, nothing works at all. Gears just snag up and reel is useless.
It took several tries removing trip gear and re positioning it to mesh it differently with the drive gear, in order to get the bail to close correctly and flier to continue to rotate.
I included pictures of trip gear at its different stages through mechanical bail trip.

Just for those who might be gun shy because of the notorious flier bearing assembly, fear not! It's really not that bad. Just micro. I used tiny tweezers to place bearings in ball cage washer. I also used minimal grease on the hard steel "sandwich" washers. This helped to keep the tiny bearings in place. Once the stack is assembled, the flier is inserted into body and infamous collet is snugged down.
Internals next!!

That's why I love doing this. The mental challenges defeated!

[Midway Tommy]

Interesting reassembly & well done!

I have a magnetized tiny screwdriver that I use to place the balls in situations like that. For me, at least, it eliminates the risk of the balls shooting out of the tweezer pressure. 

[Woodbilly]

Interesting reassembly & well done!

I have a magnetized tiny screwdriver that I use to place the balls in situations like that. For me, at least, it eliminates the risk of the balls shooting out of the tweezer pressure. 

I just put a little tab of grease at end of tweezers and the tiny balls go nowhere. Works great, sometimes they don't want to leave the tweezers so easily, but better than flying out and disappearing into the nether. Lol

[Woodbilly]

Hey, all.

Slow bite, but beautiful day on the lake yesterday.
 After some crappie fishing and meat grilling, I decided to work on the Altex some more.

Tackling getting the handle, non rotating shaft, drive gear, and rest of internals installed and wrapped up.
I didn't rivet pin the handle, as I've got a factory correct handle coming.

Coming along nicely, but still tedious. I polished all screw heads and tried my best to tidy them and other brightwork up but this old girl has some scars that can't be fixed. That's OK by me, as we all have scars that tell our story.

I also included some pics of my micro push button oiler and the lubrication grease, I use.
The oil is just standard sewing machine oil I put into the oiler and for my parts that use grease, instead, I used faucet valve grease. It will not dry out, harden, gum up, and is waterproof. I use these 2 on all my resto's. Never had issue.

Well, getting closer and the mechanical bail works perfectly every time now. Going to get the external badges, oil port covers, and brass check carrier back on next and my undamaged handle should be here soon, to finish it up.
I'll post up a Facebook video of the finished reel in action, when it's complete.

Peace!!

[Woodbilly]

Finished up getting the rest of the exterior parts put on and got the brass check carrier installed. That rivet pin was a #### getting back in the check carrier and non rotating shaft.
Kudos to Edward Broadfoot. Dude was a superhero! Finally got it set and filed smooth. Spool slid on smoothly.
Pretty much complete, other than a little cleaning up on the spool. I haven't done anything to it yet.

Almost done!!

[Woodbilly]

Got the spool finished. I painted the spool drag brake / name script red and shined the spool with oil.
Installed it on the reel and drag works great. Such a light gear click to it. So subtle.

Question: Did these have anti reverse? This one does not. Is something missing or just an early version? The reel had obviously been tinkered with before I got it. Is this a part that could be removed or not reinstalled?

Anyways, all wrapped up and what a task. So many micro parts and tiny screws. Solid body case was a first, as well.
I feel I can tear into my no.2 without issue.
The guys who built these reels, in the day, wow! Cheers to them!

This will be getting crappie catching action soon! I'm pretty sure it's going to be in regular rotation, too.
Mechanical bail arm, so cool and reel just oozes swagger.