Okuma makaira 2 years spares advice

[Reinaard van der Vossen]

Now I just purchased 2 makaira's.


I was able to find them here in Europe but it was not as easy as in the United States and they are more expensive over here. I will not use the reels a lot. I'm lucky if I get two to three days a year for the type of fishing where this reels are required. Maybe I can double that when really lucky but that will be it, basically.

That means that I will have to prepare the reels very well and maintain them very well also because they will need to be around for a long time.

I know the reels are built decent and I only heard of one failure of a 50w in the Azores with a complete blocking reel but could not get a real grip on the story. As far as I could get some info it had something to do with the drag adjustment knob which caused something else to fail. Other then this story I could find very little to none negatives but I would have like to know the real cause of the jamming just to be able to check and prevent if possible.

Reel X/corrosion-x and call's grease I can get from Germany nowadays but if the parts are as difficult as the reels to obtain what parts would you like to have readily available at your home?

[JGB]

I would inventory the following:
Right side plate pinion bearing.
Left Spool bearing.
Shift button.
Shift button housing.
TSI 321 lubricant
Cal's Grease.

If you have the MAK10/MAK15 then you can get the bearing set and a large handle in the SE kit.

The bearings can be damaged if the drag gets set too high.
The shift button and housing can get jammed if you drop the reel on the shift housing.
Maintenance is just grease drag and clean and oil the spool bearings if they get crusted up with salt.

In reality these reels should be flawless  for many years with out opening them up.

Enjoy,
Jim N.

[Reinaard van der Vossen]

Jim,

Thanks, I´ve got a 50W and a 30.
I would expect also a drag washer and a drag disc as those are the ones on which the friction works but I guess that if they are greased well with Cal´s grease that the wear an tear of the drag is within reasonable limits and that the bearings might have a a higher chance of failure if there is salt intrusion (which I will try to prevent)

I will stock Cal's grease, a marine grease and a good lubricant for the bearings anyway. Freespool is less of a concern as I consider these reels to be too big for casting and they will be used for trolling.

What about the drag knob/springs? (in relation to my starting post)