Redington AL 11/12 service

[retiredandfishing]

Got a Redington AL 11/12 in the shop for a weak drag problem.  I can find no schematic on it.  Wondering if anyone knows where a schematic might be brought up.  This company and the particular design of the reel has been through litigation between the designer and a group who bought the company an so was for a while not produced.  Not sure if it is in production now or not, but can find nothing on it. 

Would like to see the schematic before I open it up.  Any help you can be would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Steve

[jurelometer]

I read that the AL was discontinued when Orvis took over Redington  around 2000, and resurrected as the AS when Jim Murphy bought Redington back. You might find something on the AS reels. 

I only had an AL for a couple weeks until a tarpon pulled the foot off.  Jim Murphy personally replied and sent me a couple top end DFR fly rods.  I liked their rods, but loved their customer service.  The reel models seemed to change weekly.

I think that the AL/AS reels came with some sort of spanner wrench for getting inside the guts . It was needed to flip over the one way bearing to reverse the retrieve.  I also seem to remember that there was only a partial schematic, enough to reverse the retrieve, but I could be wrong.

If you call Redington, they might be able to help.  They are now owned by whoever owns Sage, and still have a USA presence. BTW, these reels have a lifetime warranty except for the Orvis period.

But if you can figure out how to get inside, it shouldn't be too tricky without a schematic. Please post some photos if you dive in.

-J

[DaleH]

Would like to see the schematic before I open it up.  Any help you can be would be greatly appreciated.

Let me add these to sart, as I'm at work, but i bet I have a BETTER schematic at home I can scan, whereas I have every AL model ever made.

I read that the AL was discontinued when Orvis took over Redington  around 2000, and resurrected as the AS when Jim Murphy bought Redington back.

That's not correct. Both the AS and AL were out about the same time, with maybe the AS 1st, as an AS reel was my 1st Redington reel of that design. Orvis bought out the rights for manufacturing them as it was KILLING the sale of their reels!

FWIW, I've NEVER had a problem with ANY of my AL fly reels and about a week ago I took a personal best 46" about 40-pound striped bass on my 9/10 I carry aboard my boat! I'll admit that I kept the drag knob less than full tight or power and palmed the reel, but that was more to prevent losing the fish boatside - when they burst out on their 'last ditch' runs when only 5' from the boat or 2' from the net, LOL - than it was for any concern about the drag pressure per se. 


Schematic



Specs

[jurelometer]

Would like to see the schematic before I open it up.  Any help you can be would be greatly appreciated.

Let me add these to sart, as I'm at work, but i bet I have a BETTER schematic at home I can scan, whereas I have every AL model ever made.

I read that the AL was discontinued when Orvis took over Redington  around 2000, and resurrected as the AS when Jim Murphy bought Redington back.

That's not correct. Both the AS and AL were out about the same time, with maybe the AS 1st, as an AS reel was my 1st Redington reel of that design. Orvis bought out the rights for manufacturing them as it was KILLING the sale of their reels!

Ooh, you are right about the AS/AL.  The AS was standard arbor and the AL was large arbor - i.e., different models.  I mis-remembered this as a model name change.  I thought that Orvis sold the AL for a short while, but I could be mis-remembering that too.

Something weird seemed to have happened  with the sale of the reel business to Orvis then back to Redington.  I couldn't find anything from the press on it, just secondhand stories on various web forums.  Jim Murphy sure moved around a lot.  From Redington to Albright to Sage/Far Bank to Hardy (with a stop at Winston for awhile?). Then at Pure fishing, which I guess was the result of them picking up Hardy. Bailed from Pure Fishing, and now I think he is at Douglas, another startup fly rod/reel company.

FWIW, I've NEVER had a problem with ANY of my AL fly reels and about a week ago I took a personal best 46" about 40-pound striped bass on my 9/10 I carry aboard my boat! I'll admit that I kept the drag knob less than full tight or power and palmed the reel, but that was more to prevent losing the fish boatside - when they burst out on their 'last ditch' runs when only 5' from the boat or 2' from the net, LOL - than it was for any concern about the drag pressure per se. 


Schematic



Specs

It is good that you posted a different experience.  We are dealing in anecdotal evidence when we are talking about failures, so the more data points the better. Mine broke long before it had a chance to corrode, which is the main complaint that I have seen. Not the only fly reel that I have pulled off its foot, so I suspect that I tend to use more drag than you. 

On the design front, I am not a big fan of roller clutches (one-way bearings).  You can almost get away with it in a well designed "sealed" reel, but these early roller clutch designs like the AL are all at risk for corrosion. Plus salt getting on the drag surface can make them sticky. the spool lock/release  mechanism is the old freshwater style and not secure enough for faster species.  Plus the foot is not secure. Sticking to my guns here from a design standpoint.

Getting back to the OP's question, I don't think that these reels were designed to handle much drag by modern standards, so maybe the drag is bottoming out by design.  The full schematic will help for determining the options. When I have encountered this problem on  different reels, I was able to get more maximum clamping force by stacking some extra flat washers, but usually at the expense of not being able to back the drag off  all the way.

Congrats on the 46" striper. That is a slug!  Nothing wrong with palming as long as you are not trying to apply a ton of drag that way.  I agree that it can be a useful technique.  Easiest way to be able to back off the drag in a hurry.

-J