1953 Benora Standard 2 speed spin reel strip, repaint, and restore

[Woodbilly]

Hey guys!

Back with newest project!

It's a Swiss made 1953 Benora Standard 2 speed spin reel. Stamped no.1214, which is a very early production reel, as most I have seen, are in the 6000-10000 and up range.
I've had this old girl for awhile and have just never done anything with her.

She is working, but stiff and needs some TLC.
2 speed handle actuator works fine and engages both the 4.5:1 ratio and 2.75:1ratio gears without issue.
This is the reels Achilles heel, as internally, it's fragile, so to have it working is a plus.

This one has original gray finish.
I have already stripped and restored one Benora and kept it original, so this one is getting a repaint in a new color. Haven't decided on that, yet.

I did not document the last Benora strip, so I am going to on this one, as this reel has many parts and is quite tedious to strip/ assemble.

The spool has a sealed drag washer stack and the drag click pawl /spring, is much like an Eildon. This spool actually fits my Eildon. I had to try it. Ha!

The very tricky and fragile part of this reel is the spring loaded push button actuator rod for the double ring gear.
It is tiny, fragile, and must be disassembled in a specific order to prevent breakage.

I busted my first Benora's actuator rod and had to fabricate one from a tiny Allen wrench. Fit and function were fine, but not a fun job to hand fet a tiny rod from a piece of stock, plus I couldn't thread the end like original, so set screw holds push button on, only.

Got this one disassembled with no problems.

Firstly, handle and cover plate assembly must be removed from body.

Loosen tiny set screw located on pushbutton. To do this, align push button set screw with tiny hole in knurled handle holding collar, depress button to align holes, and insert screwdriver there. Back out set screw a couple turns and this frees it from contact with threads on actuator rod end. No need to remove fully.
I only did to show micro size of screw.

In the center of small ring gear is a tiny set screw. Remove this fully. This will allow access to spring and rod.

Remove spring from opening where set screw was. Now, insert tiny screwdriver into hole and seat onto slot at end of actuator rod. You can't see this slot and just have to go by feel. This will allow you to hold rod firm from spinning while push button is twisted off threaded end of rod.

Now, pushbutton can be unthreaded from end of rod and rod be pushed out through access hole in ring gear where spring was first removed.

Now move to small set screw, with two small indents, located at handle base. I used my needle point tweezers to rotate this set screw, to remove.

Another tiny set screw in handle bushing sleeve must be loosened before the sleeve can be unthreaded off of the handle post.

Once both of these are removed and or loosened, entire ring gear/ handle post assembly can pulled from outer cover.

Once removed, on ring gear shaft, there is a grooved slot around the shaft. A small cradle bearing sleeve nests in this groove and when the earlier removed two hole indent set screw, on outer plate handle base, is tightened down, this seats into the small hole in cradle sleeve and keeps the ring gear shaft in place and prevents handle wobble.

The hole on cradle sleeve and hole where set screw threads must lined up, so set screw nests into cradle sleeve hole as it is tightened down. Tricky, but not impossible.

Also on threaded handle shaft, there is a hole straight through. 2 tiny ball bearings are inserted here and held in place when handle post is sleeved into bushing on side plate cover.

These 2 ball bearings act as a hold for the actuating rod. The actuating rod, when inserted into handle post, pushes these bearings outward. When the rod moves downward, the indent in the rod allows the ball bearings to move inward, thereby locking the rod in position. This locking and unlocking is what changes the inner ring gears from high to low and vice versa.

Once parts are cleaned up, I'll post some assembly pictures of this, as they will show the function better than words.

To remove flier from body and access dust cover and bearing tray, the pinion gear shaft must be held tight from turning and flier is rotated by hand counterclockwise, to unthread flier from body allowing access to rest of flier parts.

I just used smooth jaw pliers to hold the shaft neck and rotated flier, to pop it loose.

As seen, when flier is out of the way, dust cover can be removed via two holding screws.

Bearing collet has two indents, much like a Hardy Altex, and one tiny set screw.

Tap one indent with a punch to free up collet and then I used my modified split ring removal jaws, to finish taking off collet.

Underneath, are 11 ball bearings and race washer they set on. There is a tiny set screw on collet that after reassembly, must be tightened back down and the protruding set screw end, on bottom side of collet, nests into the row of bearings, where the 12th bearing would have set.

Pretty crazy. I'm not sure of the purpose. Maybe for oiling of inner ball bearings without removing collet.

After bearing collet is removed, entire shaft and pinion gear can be removed out of the front of the reel body for disassembly.

This will leave you with an empty body shell and fully disassembled flier.

The spring loaded pull/twist anti reverse button is rivet pinned onto side plate cover. I could see no way to remove it and it's easily oiled and basically service free, so it gets taped off for repaint.

I think this sums up the major disassembly steps and will get one to the place for a full cleaning/ repaint/ repair/ restore.

Lots of tiny parts on this girl, so hope this helps anyone in the future who has an old Benora in need of some love.

I'll be on to cleaning all parts and getting body parts ready for new paint scheme before full reassembly.

Stay tuned!

[Woodbilly]

Final strip down pictures

[Midway Tommy]

Great job documenting and photographing the tear down process! Thank you! 

It will be cool to see the end product. Hopefully you'll have time to document & show the whole reassembly process, too.     

[oldmanjoe]

Yes nice job on documenting the tear down .    Look forward to seeing the finished reel .

[Gfish]

Woodbillyyyyy! Alright! another photo odyssey on an old quality reel.

[Woodbilly]

Great job documenting and photographing the tear down process! Thank you! 

It will be cool to see the end product. Hopefully you'll have time to document & show the whole reassembly process, too.     

I will document entire process!
Thanks!!

[foakes]

Solid skills and a good tutorial for folks!

Thanks!

Best, Fred

[Woodbilly]

Solid skills and a good tutorial for folks!

Thanks!

Best, Fred

Thank you! Stay tuned for reassembly!

[jgp12000]

When was that guy made musta been state of the art back then!
What color you painting it?

[Woodbilly]

When was that guy made musta been state of the art back then!
What color you painting it?

1953, but my Australian made 1949 Eildon is very similar to this one, in many aspects.
So it obviously copied some other makers reels.

Not set on a color, yet.

[Crow]

Good job !

[Woodbilly]

Back with updates!

 Got the body parts and flier stripped of old finish and everything repainted with one coat primer and two coats paint. Dust cover also got a fresh coat of primer and black paint scheme.
 I didn't go all in and do any body fill, so casting imperfections and old battle scars, still there

 I used Dupli-Color medium gray metallic paint on the body parts. Matte black on dust cover.
 Turned out nice. Looks period correct and has a nice contrast with dust cover and brightwork.

 Assembly went smoothly with no hiccups.

I started first on the side plate and handle assembly.
On this, there are several small parts, that need to stay put, as assembled. I used a light amount of faucet grease on these parts, just to keep them in place while assembling. Light machine oil on everything else, before any reassembly.

 Starting first with the push button/ actuating rod set up.

 Beginning with actuating rod first, sleeve it into smaller high ring gear shaft, threaded end protruding through shaft end.

 Apply a tiny bit of grease in bearing hole in shaft and place the two bearings. One on each side.
  After this, insert this gear into the larger low gear shaft. Install set screw, at this point, to keep actuating rod in place, while working on this part, as spring and knob still have to be installed, but not yet. Ball bearings should keep rod in place, but I just insert set screw for extra measure.

 Now onto the cradle bearing before placing entire gear assembly into side plate.
 Grease the channel, on the ring gear shaft, and place cradle into the channel.
 Line the hole, on cradle, up with hole on the side plate handle bushing.  Insert gear shaft, until the two holes line up.
 Now Install the double dot indent set screw, to lock all in place.
 As shown, this keeps the gear assembly in the correct placement from side plate and allows proper mesh with pinion gear.

 Next step, is to install the aluminum bushing that is part of the gear change mechanism and also acts as the nest for the flat handle to rest into. Tighten it down onto the threaded ring gear post protruding from side cover.
 It will not thread all the way down onto side cover bushing, but stop shy about 1/2". This is correct. Grip the handle stock , not the knob, and use it to snug bushing fully down. After that tighten set screw in bushing to lock it in place.

 Place handle onto bushing and secure with knurled lock nut.

 Now, move onto knurled handle lock nut. Thread and tighten it down, until snug. This holds the folding handle in place.

 Next, remove set screw in center of ring gear and place screwdriver into sleeve. Notch it into slot at end of actuator rod. This is by feel, as obviously,  the slot can't be seen.

 Now holding screwdriver firm, thread push button down onto actuating rod end. When fully threaded, tighten micro set screw, to lock it in place.

  Remove screwdriver from shaft opening and install tiny spring and finish off with the aforementioned set screw, to hold all parts in place.
 
Now, you will be able to switch between ring gears by depressing the pushbutton and either pull or push entire handle assembly to switch between the 2 gear speeds.
 This is the reason for the gap spacing between the aluminum handle bushing and side plate.

 This completes the side plate/ handle mechanism assembly.

 The flier was pretty straightforward.

First, place outer bushing onto bail arm and slide to ball end of bail. Fasten bushing with holding screw. Done.

Now, move to other side and set spring and bail arm bracket and secure with holding screw.

 Attach bail arm to bracket with nut and secure.

 Place trip lever into flier, secure with screw, and then attach spring. Mine was stretched, but still functions fine, so I left it, as it is micro small.

 With flier assembled,  set aside for later.

 On to body, non rotating shaft,  and bearing set, and collet.

Sleeve pinion gear onto non rotating shaft and put in place with shaft end sliding into sleeve at butt end of body shell.

 Place flat bearing washer in opening, next. Note: the i.d. of the washer is slightly bigger than the o.d. of the pinion gear shaft.
 This gap allows for a raceway for the bearings to set In.

The pinion shaft  has a recessed collar on it. Apply grease to this area, as shown.
 Pull the pinion upward until recessed collar and washer gap align.

 Drop all ball bearings onto washer and gently maneuver them into the race created by the washer gap and pinion gear collar.

 Once all bearings are set, back out tiny set screw on collet and fully tighten down collet.
 Next, turn pinion to check for smooth rotation. If any bind, back off collet, until smooth. Finally, tighten down set screw to keep collet from backing out any.  Figured out that was what that little bugger was for! Ha!

 Attach dust cover to body with two brass holding screws. These screw heads also act as the trip lever actuator, as flier rotates trip assembly strikes the screw head, snapping bail shut.

 Now attach flier to body by holding firm pinion gear. Grip shoulder with pliers, as flier is tightened down onto threaded pinion gear end.

 Lastly,  side plate handle assembly is put on.

 Place roller sleeve onto post at center of small gear. Line roller up with half square foot on non rotating shaft.
 Put side cover to body, thereby locking roller into foot and also, allowing ring gears to mesh with pinion gears.

 Tighten down with three brass screws and check for function.

 This will complete the process.

Note: I used faucet grease only to hold small parts for placement and liberal use of light machine oil everywhere else.

 Hope this assists anyone looking for info on these old Swiss beauties!!

Cheers!

[Woodbilly]

More pictures

[Woodbilly]

Final pictures

[jtwill98]

Excellent workmanship and great finished product. You do nice work, Sir!