Holes in Spool: What the Heck Is This About?

[akroper]

A couple of days ago, I picked up a Shakespeare 2062 EB in pretty rough shape.  I bought it only because it was mounted on a very nice Shakes Wonderod.  I decided to try to rehab it, and in removing the spool, I find this - holes in pairs spaced around the circumference of the bottom lip and what looks to be about 4# mono laced in and out of the holes.  What could possibly be the purpose?
I almost cut the line off, but reconsidered until I could consult the collective wisdom of the AT Ohana.  (I was also concerned that the spool might explode if I removed the line.)
Whaddya think?

[OhReely]

A lot of rotor cup spinning reels had a wire with a fuzzy cover wrapped around the bottom of the spool to fill the gap between the spool and rotor when the spool was at it's highest point of travel. I think the idea was to keep the line and other debris from getting into the rotor, under the spool. The wire ends are inserted into the holes and bent.

Not absolutely necessary to have it but you can buy pipe cleaners on Amazon if you can find the right length to go around the spool.

[Gfish]

Yeah, but I still don't get the purpose of a bunch of holes and mono laced through there...

[Midway Tommy]

It's not factory, it's a DIY modification to simulate what OhReely posted. If the spool originally had Chenille there would only be two holes for a tie and a groove for the Chenille lay in. Their 2052 plastic spools had that. The mono thing is kind of a hokey way to go about it, but maybe it helps keep slack line, which I have never had a problem with, from getting between the rotor & spool.

[oldmanjoe]

    Sad  part is they laced it wrong ..

[akroper]

It is definitely a DIY mod.  The holes are not precisely spaced, as if someone were just eyeballing it.  Like Mr. Reely and Mr. Tommy, my initial thought was a replacement for the chenille found on many old reels.  I dismissed that idea because of the way it is laced.  It's hard to see in the pics, but the mono passes from the inside through the near hole in one of the pairs, then over to the second hole of the pair and through that hole back to the inside.  The line then doubles back through the first hole, over to the second hole, back through to the inside where it passes over to the first hole of the next pair of holes and the process repeats. 
The only line on the outside circumference of the spool is the double line between pairs of holes.  The line on the inside of the spool "cuts the corner" from the second hole of one pair to the first hole of the next pair. 
If the idea was to replace the chenille, why is there so little on the outside of the spool, and why is the mono so thin?
Crap like this costs me sleep and makes me grumpy.

[Midway Tommy]

There never was Chenille on those metal spools. They probably tried to thread the other way the first and found there was too much line on the outside and bound it up. They probably figured that there were enough line sections this way that when the rotor was rotating the slack fishing line wouldn't slip into the space between the spool and rotor. Remember, there's not a whole lot of clearance between the spool & rotor, and even less if either is out of true.

[akroper]

Yeah, I suppose you are correct, as usual.  Trying to replicate the function of the chenille is the only thing that makes sense.  Just seems like a lot of work for little return.