VISX 16 Freespool Clicking sound

[Leonman44]

Hello Fellas !

Just purchased a "new" VISX reel , "new" because when i received it , i noticed that this was a display reel due to having some marks on it. Out of the box i noticed except the small scratches another 2 issues. One of them was the handle not rotating nicely but rather stucking , for this i dropped some penn oil on the joint and it got fixed , this is very suspicious as since when does the grease dry out?

Biggest issue though is that while freespool is great something inside gets banged and its both very audible and causes vibrations to the reel. I understand now why this reel was 20% off... The noise lessens if i rotate the spool backwards and almost disappears if i turn the reels orientation from horizontal to vertical.

 I know that the right thing to do is return the reel as a new reel should come in a perfect condition out of the box and not like this but a new one will cost me around 250 more so i am trying to weight my options.

What do you guys think ? Is this something that easily gets fixed?

Here is a video of the issue so you can hear it: https://files.fm/f/dwjnaxn4s8https://files.fm/f/dwjnaxn4s8

Thank you for your time and knowledge !

[Penn]

Hi Leon, welcome to the forum.

Very easy fix here.  That noise you hear is the 7A metal drag washer rattling in the spool.  If you look at

schematic you will see the 7A metal drag washer has 4 little ears, take the washer out and dip each ear in a little grease and set it back in.  The noise should go away. 

https://www.mysticparts.com/Assets/images/pennparts/schematics/16visx.pdf

tony

[Leonman44]

Hi Leon, welcome to the forum.

Very easy fix here.  That noise you hear is the 7A metal drag washer rattling in the spool.  If you look at

schematic you will see the 7A metal drag washer has 4 little ears, take the washer out and dip each ear in a little grease and set it back in.  The noise should go away. 

https://www.mysticparts.com/Assets/images/pennparts/schematics/16visx.pdf

tony

Thank you Tony !

I will give it go , may will redo the Handle too since it doesnt feel 100% right , do i use Penn precision grease for this too or something else ?

I have Cals grease on hand too.

[JasonGotaProblem]

If you think there's a possibility there's old dry grease in there then a full service is probably a good idea.

[Penn]

Hi Leon, welcome to the forum.

Very easy fix here.  That noise you hear is the 7A metal drag washer rattling in the spool.  If you look at

schematic you will see the 7A metal drag washer has 4 little ears, take the washer out and dip each ear in a little grease and set it back in.  The noise should go away. 

https://www.mysticparts.com/Assets/images/pennparts/schematics/16visx.pdf

tony

Thank you Tony !

I will give it go , may will redo the Handle too since it doesnt feel 100% right , do i use Penn precision grease for this too or something else ?

I have Cals grease on hand too.

Cal's is fine for this application. 

tony

[Leonman44]

Hi Leon, welcome to the forum.

Very easy fix here.  That noise you hear is the 7A metal drag washer rattling in the spool.  If you look at

schematic you will see the 7A metal drag washer has 4 little ears, take the washer out and dip each ear in a little grease and set it back in.  The noise should go away. 

https://www.mysticparts.com/Assets/images/pennparts/schematics/16visx.pdf

tony

Thank you Tony !

I will give it go , may will redo the Handle too since it doesnt feel 100% right , do i use Penn precision grease for this too or something else ?

I have Cals grease on hand too.

Cal's is fine for this application. 

tony

Tony is this the factorys Grease or the store regreased the handle ?

https://ibb.co/PzggW4zc

Underneath that liquid grease it was a fat layer of dried out grease which was causing the issue , cleaned it with ipa and a microfiber cloth as much as i could:

https://ibb.co/DPkR8GXt


Just put the Cals grease with a brush and now the handle turns perfectly smooth , so smooth that i cant believe it , it was indeed in a bad condition.


For the spool fix i will have to wait for the Penn precision grease to arrive as i dont want to mix the greases and cause any sort of issue.

Also for the drag washers what is the recommended application amount? should they look nearly dry or there must be a thin layer of grease?

Thank you for everything Tony you been very helpful !

If you think there's a possibility there's old dry grease in there then a full service is probably a good idea.

You are right about this but i really hope everything inside the reel is completely fine because i cant do a complete tear down , complete tear down , cleaning and regrease by myself. I can do only dedicated stuff little by little.

I hope that it was just the handle as it comes contact with the air easier than the internals of the reel and the reel must have the blue penns grease inside , unsure if it holds better overtime than the handles one.

[Penn]

Hi Leon,

Sorry but our firewall is not allowing me to click your link.  If you are able to upload direct to this site I will be able to view.  PENN grease is blue.  Drag washer's get a thin layer of PENN drag grease which is whiteish/clear color, (Not sellable to the public) but Cal's grease is fine to use as well.  A very thin coating is all you need. 

tony

[Leonman44]

Hi Leon,

Sorry but our firewall is not allowing me to click your link.  If you are able to upload direct to this site I will be able to view.  PENN grease is blue.  Drag washer's get a thin layer of PENN drag grease which is whiteish/clear color, (Not sellable to the public) but Cal's grease is fine to use as well.  A very thin coating is all you need. 

tony

Thank you for specifying !

Maybe now its visible to the forum :


Looks liquid due to the penn oil i dropped before opening it. Underneath is was completely dried out, knob would turn hardly and vibrate from the high friction.

From what i understand for whatever the reason the handle got reworked , not a good sign for a new reel... At least i managed to 100% fix it. Kinda scared for what i am going to find out inside the reel but i hope it was not opened.

If i have the time i am going to open it up later today as just got the penn grease for the 7a ears and in case i have to regrease something else.

So if i want to refresh the drag washers should i apply the Cals grease on top of Penns grease or i must completely clean the Original grease before applying the Cals , if so what would be a proper way of doing this?

[Penn]

It should always be buyer beware when buying a "display model".  We grease the handle shaft with PENN blue grease, not oil it.  You can apply a light coating of Cal's directly on top, no need to clean first. 

tony

[Leonman44]

It should always be buyer beware when buying a "display model".  We grease the handle shaft with PENN blue grease, not oil it.  You can apply a light coating of Cal's directly on top, no need to clean first. 

tony

It should always be buyer beware when buying a "display model".  We grease the handle shaft with PENN blue grease, not oil it.  You can apply a light coating of Cal's directly on top, no need to clean first. 

tony

I totally agree but in this case i didnt know that i was buying a display reel , ordered it online and there was absolutely no indication of it being a display reel but only a 20% discount , i got surprised upon unboxing !

I will update this topic with pics once i open it up !

[Leonman44]

Here we go !!!

Before :


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My observations are that the reel has been opened from the store owner so he knew very well the issue and couldnt manage to fix it , you can see that awful red grease on the clicker that also put on the handle and dried out so bad. Gladly didnt open the drag washers so no much damage was done , just some scratches to the metal housing that could potentialy cause issues overtime if it would come in contact with salt. Also interestingly the grease application to the washers is very light from Penn and looks dry to the eye , the ears of the 7A were greased but not enough to make it stay in place. Penns blue grease looked a bit discolored but still functional and not dried out at all.

So i tried to make things better:










1) I did apply a protective grease coating to the house , screws and components
2) Applied Cals to the drag washers using the tuthbrush , a much richer application than Penns
3) Applied Cals to the 7A ears , i realised that same grease as drag washers grease must be applied there as this will get squeezed and run into the washers !
4) Oiled the central of the 71 while greased the sides afterwards
5) Refreshed the Penns grease just a quick on the gears etc without a disassemble
6) Installed the harness Lugs because i didnt like the plastic plugs that had marks on them , will come handy too.


Worries:

1) If i turn the handle fast the spool moves as well on Freespool , it did that before opening the reel as well but its not that the drag washers are engaded or something , freespool performance is the best i since but there is some resistance somewhere... Any ideas???

2) The grease of the 7A ears got squeezed for sure and run on the drag washers , unsure if that will reduce the max drag performance from too much grease in there.


Overall i fixed my reel and now i can finally enjoy it !



Cant wait to revenge those groupers with that monstrous torque power !   

[JasonGotaProblem]

Job well done.

Any grease more than the drags can hold will be slung off to the sides the first time you get a fish that wants to run. A light coat is best. A tad extra won't kill you.

[Keta]

Job well done.

Any grease more than the drags can hold will be slung off to the sides the first time you get a fish that wants to run. A light coat is best. A tad extra won't kill you.

On a lever drag reel excess grease kills the freespool.  Rub the grease in good then wipe all excess off.

[Leonman44]

Job well done.

Any grease more than the drags can hold will be slung off to the sides the first time you get a fish that wants to run. A light coat is best. A tad extra won't kill you.

That's perfect then ! As a bonus I won't be using max drags , wanted the reel more for the reeling power than the 45lbs max drag but I won't go very light on the drags either , the grouper must not be able to find cover and cut me through the rocks.

Job well done.

Any grease more than the drags can hold will be slung off to the sides the first time you get a fish that wants to run. A light coat is best. A tad extra won't kill you.

On a lever drag reel excess grease kills the freespool.  Rub the grease in good then wipe all excess off.

I see , are you referring for the components that comes in contact with the 71 ? I noticed there that the spools ball bearings had a lot of grease on them so maybe it's from that but I thought leaving it would be better for longevity.

[Keta]

The metal and carbon fiber disks.