1946 French Helion full stripdown and restore/ Completed!

[Woodbilly]

Hey, all!

I'm back with another vintage French beauty!!

I've aquired a broken down, but complete, 1946 French Helion spin reel.

I gave $100 for her due to condition. Seller thought bail arm spring ball cover was cracked, but turned out to be only a surface scrape. Phew!

What a looker!! Wow! The bronze and brown scheme are very similar to my Mepps Baby Vamp.

This old girl is non working and bail arm is sprung, but not broken anywhere.

Reel turns smoothly, but has catches and is cantankerous, yet.

I gave her a full stripdown and am in process of cleaning and polishing all parts.

I could not separate the bail arm roller assembly and since it can be cleaned assembled, I left it, as not to break anything.

This reel is a bearing filled beast!

40 needle bearings on the handle shaft and 45 needle bearings on the flier worm gear assembly, plus 9 ball bearings!
 A grand total of 94 handset loose bearings!! WTF!?

I took many pictures before disassembly and still am not 100% sure on full function of parts. e.g. anti reverse and bail arm trip mechanism.
 I will delve deeper as reassembly happens, as this particular reel is like none I have ever worked on.

If anyone has any info or documents they'd like to share, much appreciated!

Fun! Fun!

Stay tuned!

[Woodbilly]

More pictures

[Woodbilly]

More pictures

[Woodbilly]

Final stripdown pictures

[jtwill98]

It looks like there might be some gear damage on the main gear at the 10 O'clock position in photo ending in 614. I hope that's not the case. 

[Woodbilly]

It looks like there might be some gear damage on the main gear at the 10 O'clock position in photo ending in 614. I hope that's not the case. 

No sir. Just massive amounts of old caked grease giving that impression.

All looked good with wipedown. Full cleaning will reveal it nicely.

[MACflyer]

Wow, in great condition for 80 years young! Looking forward to seeing her all clean and pretty.

[Woodbilly]

Wow, in great condition for 80 years young! Looking forward to seeing her all clean and pretty.

Agreed! Larger reel than what i normally use, but couldn't pass on her for $100.
 Ready to get those bearings set! Lol
 

[Brewcrafter]

Great looking reel, and a nice restore thanks for sharing.  Not a reel I have ever seen or heard of.  Bet those needle bearings were fun!  (Coming from a guy that has rebuilt MANY driveshaft universal joints).  Question (not criticism, just my own OCD) in the early photos is the sideplate/medallion supposed to be clocked that way?  It looks like the sideplate screws are equidistant 120 degrees, and in my mind I would have it clocked "upright" but I also am quick to be one to say "this is the way it came from the factory".  Still a beautiful reel glad everything was "there".- john

[Woodbilly]

Great looking reel, and a nice restore thanks for sharing.  Not a reel I have ever seen or heard of.  Bet those needle bearings were fun!  (Coming from a guy that has rebuilt MANY driveshaft universal joints).  Question (not criticism, just my own OCD) in the early photos is the sideplate/medallion supposed to be clocked that way?  It looks like the sideplate screws are equidistant 120 degrees, and in my mind I would have it clocked "upright" but I also am quick to be one to say "this is the way it came from the factory".  Still a beautiful reel glad everything was "there".- john

John,

These are all pre stripdown pictures and reel not reassembled, yet.

I am giving all parts a thorough cleaning and brightwork a polishing.

Badge will be rotated when I put it back on and the needle bearings are yet to come! Joy!

Stay tuned!

[Midway Tommy]

That's a hard one to find, especially in decent condition! Looks like you have your work cut out for you and a fun time ahead. 

[Woodbilly]

That's a hard one to find, especially in decent condition! Looks like you have your work cut out for you and a fun time ahead. 

You know it!! Pumped for this one!

[happyhooker]

Beautiful reel.  Very French--I'm not sure what half the parts do that you show.

Frank

[Woodbilly]

Beautiful reel.  Very French--I'm not sure what half the parts do that you show.

Frank

Haha! Me either. It appears non rotating shaft can be removed easily,via single holding screw at butt end of reel body cap, to allow access to bottom of flier.

Once flier is exposed, 3 holding screws can be loosened and a ring can be rotated and screws tightened back. I have no idea what this does, but think it is anti reverse function. We'll find out...

You can see this set up in my stripdown picture of the flier after the non rotating shaft is removed.

This ring also rotates on 3 of the 9 ball bearings present on this reel.
 

[Woodbilly]

Hey, all!
I spent the afternoon cleaning, polishing, and reassembling the 1945 French Helion spin reel.

Lots of tiny parts!

Got everything back together and all is working fine, but upon rotation, the spool is slightly contacting the flier.

Upon closer inspection, I can see a slight bend deformation in the flier.
 Probably been dropped at one point.
 I will take a roll of wood and mallet and give it a finessing and try and remedy that issue.

Without spool attached, reel is very smooth and rotates like silk!

I had to do a tweak to both the handle and bail arm, as both of those, too, were bent.

Handle is not perfect, but I got it way better than it was, as it was contacting bail and body, and the bent angle just made it awkward rotating.
 It's a cast alloy and I definitely didn't want to break it pecking on it with the mallet, so stopped where I had it.
 Done!

The bail arm was severely out if shape and bent way down past the flier, when closed.
 It was making contact with handle and could possibly break.
 I did not want to tamper with it, but I just went for it and worked it straighter little by little.
You can see in flier assembly pictures, how low it initially set.
 It, too, is not perfect, but is fixed and working great, now.
 Done!

 Very unique A/R mechanism on this one, like I've never seen.
 A finger trigger on flier, rotates a ring, nested on 3 ball bearings.
 The ring has tabs  on the underside that butt against a notched bushing that is attached to underside of flier, when a/r is engaged, preventing backspin.
 When disengaged, the rotation of the ring moves the tabs where they miss the notched washer, allowing counterclockwise rotation.
 Took a minute to figure that one out.

Got all 86 needle bearings and 9 ball bearings set without any issue.
 Plumber's valve grease was the key here.
 Apply a smudge of grease to races and all bearings stayed put while assembling.

Probably one of the most interesting and tedious stripdowns I have ever done, but well worth it, after seeing the finished and now working reel!

I used my letter punches to initial the flier counterweight, too.

I will most definitely be using this old girl, soon.
 A great feel and look to it!!
3:1 ratio

Can't wait to see how she functions!

Peace!!