Olympic LG 450 III spinning reel

[happyhooker]

Got an Olympic LG 450 III reel from another AT member (thanks again, David) and thought it might interest a few folks to chat about it a bit.



There was some discussion a few years ago on the site about an LG 750, but nothing else I am aware of on Olympic reels of this type.  Of course, many of us have heard of Olympic reels, and there are many models of them out there.  The LG 750 looks somewhat similar to the LG 450, and might be a big brother.  I have also seen some online references  about an LG 550; perhaps someone knows if this was a series and if there were other reels in that grouping.

Olympic made a lot of reels in the time frame of the final 40 years of the last century.  Have heard they went out of business in 1978; have also seen references to them becoming a part of Mamiya (best known for film camera manufacture) and continuing on for some years after that.  There are references to some connection with Seiko (think watches) as well.  They retailed reels under their own name, but also made reels for others to retail, including, for example, KMart.  Perhaps production of the last Olympic badged reels ended before the final builds for other retailers wrapped up.  For the quantity of Olympic reels that seem to exist, there isn't as much available history on them as one might expect.  Very few schematics to aid in servicing.

The LG 450 is a big reel; the info on the spool claims it weighs in at 21.1 ounces, and my postal scale says that is pretty close.  Marked to spool out 200 yards of 20 lb. test mono.  Other markings include "Olympic Japan", "Olympic New Drag System", "Olympic  LG 450" 'Olympic III" and "High Speed Type", the latter also referenced on the spool as a "Gear Ratio 5.13:1".  That was pretty fast back in the day; more than one commentator dates this reel to the 1970s era.  Skirted spool spinning reels, of which this is one, appeared in the 1950s and early 1960s, but were seen more frequently on Japanese-built reels of the '70s and really came into their own in the 1980s.

I wonder if this model reel had a manufacturing life of more than a couple of years?  I have seen pictures of almost identical models prominently labeled as "450", but marked as "Let's Go" instead of "LG", and "Mark III" instead of just "III".  Other differences seen in the images are affixed labels stating "2 Ball Bearing System" (I guess labels are easily enough lost over the years) and a marking on the front of the spool claiming "Spring Loaded Drag."  Some pics show a black spool, whereas the one I have has silver-colored metal spool.

For the most part, disassembly for service is straightforward: 1) The right-left switchable handle slides out after removing a screw-on cover cap and using a screwdriver on the retainer that holds the handle into the body. 2) Three body cover screws come off and you're into the gear case. 3) Remove the oscillation arm (ring type) from the side of the main gear, pull the pin (no screw) that holds the oscillation (crosswind) block to its shaft, and remove the shaft out through the rotor; note which end of the pin is which, and the orientation of the oscillation block. 4) Pull out the main gear; the ball bearing may or may not come off the main shaft; note the clear washer-like plastic bearing shield on top of the bearing.



--Main gear, oscillation block, retaining pin and arm--

5) Unscrew (counterclockwise) the rotor nut and remove the rotor. 6) The pinion ball bearing is held in place by a flat metal piece secured by three screws; remove the bearing, then pull out the pinion gear (the AR rachet did not come off the pinion gear shaft when I did this), noting the orientation of the bearing and the location of a thick metal sleeve and a thin metal washer (bearing shield) on the pinion shaft. 7) Take the line roller nut off the bail arm to clean those parts; no washers on the roller (which actual rolls); under that same arm is the bail spring (under the thin metal cover held on by a small screw); the spring will not shoot off if you are careful; note which end of the spring goes in the hole in the bail arm and which end goes into the hole in the rotor body; there is no spring under the cover on the other end of the bail wire. You can disassemble the AR mechanism inside the gear case if stuck or dirty; I did not do so, but cleaned it in place and checked that it operated properly; note the orientation of the fine wire spring that operates on the AR claw.



--Gear case, showing AR mechanism in place --

The 'New Drag System" notation on the drag dial disk under the spool knob seems to mean more than just advertising. Unscrew the spool knob from the oscillation shaft to remove the spool; the knob, at first glance, does not appear to come off the spool; however, it is held to the spool by a springy U-shaped wire retainer and will come off if you twist and pull on it a bit.  Pry out the retainer (watch out; it will shoot off if given the chance) and remove the



--Top of spool and related parts --

metal sleeve under it inside the well in the spool.  Now, the surprise.  Where are the expected drag disks?  There were none in my reel.  Anything in the way of disks on the backside of the spool?  No, and nothing to remove to get at any disks.  The only disk in sight is a spool disk atop the drag rachet on the oscillation shaft.  How does the drag work?  I'm hoping someone can tell me.  There will be some friction between the spool and the spool disk, I suppose, but it hardly seems like that is the whole shebang.  And why the well in the spool with the metal sleeve in it and the complicated spool knob and wire retainer?  All I can say is that, when reassembled, you can tighten the spool



--Underside of spool and spool knob --

knob and experience a very smooth operating drag that gradually increases as the knob is screwed down.  I was impressed. Those of you familiar with the Shimano MLX300 know that it, and its relations, have some shaped plastic (Teflon?) drag washers that are sorta unique, and I was thinking maybe somehow this LG 450 has something like that in the spool knob, but....

This reel uses a knuckle buster (bang bail) external bail trip, so there are none of the parts inside the rotor (or elsewhere) that you would find with an internal bail trip.  Olympic made many reels with this feature, as did Daiwa and others, and this one on a big reel reminds of the same mechanism on the Shimano MLZ60, which is also a big reel.  Maybe saves a bit of weight and complexity, but on this Olympic, you need to really "bang" the retrieve to get the bail to close.



--Rotor showing absence of bail trip --

I use a variety of cleaning and lubing methods and tools.  Plain old elbow grease with paper towels for wiping tasks.  I like STP "Cleaning and Engine Degreasing Wipes"; these have a "scrubby" texture; the moisture ingredients are isopropanol, diethylene glycol, and surfactants, among other barely pronounceable substances.  Wire brushes of various sizes and old toothbrushes, along with dish detergent and small metal picks round out the more mundane cleaning items.  For lubes, I use blue grease, cut a bit with synthetic oil on gears, shafts and rubbing contact points; for finger pads on handles, line rollers and similar parts where I don't want to attract dirt, my go to lately has been Liquid Wrench Dry Lubricant, which contains Teflon.

If anyone is viewing this information with the idea of working on one of the larger Olympic reels related to the LG 450, such as the LG  550 or LG 750, know that at least some of these other reels have some differences from the LG 450 I worked on.  For example, some of these larger models use snap rings to hold in the pinion bearing, and on the back of the spool to retain a more conventional multi-disk drag setup.  Some use a screw to fasten the oscillation block to its shaft, and to hold the spool knob to the front of the spool.  Some have 3 ball bearings instead of 2.  I don't know if any of the LG 450 models had any of these features in place of what the LG 450 I worked on had.

So, what do I like about the LG 450?  The mostly metal (body, rotor, spool, bail arms, etc.) exterior construction is quite appealing .  Right-left reversible handle is a winner.  The drag setup seems to work very well.  The AR operation is a simple left-right rotary lever, operating an AR claw on a rachet that is located ahead of the gear train, thus taking some strain off the gear train. This latter factor is valuable here since the main gear, while quite strong in appearance, is made of cast metal, and while I don't necessarily disrespect gears of this type, I do have a bit of a prejudice in favor of steel and bronze gears.

The pinion gear is, I assume, bronze, and is one of the beefiest I believe I have ever seen.  As an aside, what is the difference between bronze and brass? 



--Pinion gear and related parts --

They sort of look alike, in many instances. The former tends to be more brownish-reddish, while brass is more yellowish.  That probably doesn't help a lot,  One basic difference is that brass is copper alloyed with, mainly, zinc, while bronze is copper mainly mixed with tin.  Other elements such as phosphorus, aluminum and manganese, can also be in the alloy of either, and so the question really becomes not one of brass vs. bronze, but which of apparently dozens of alloys of both are you dealing with (a fact not likely to be known with certainty when dealing with fishing reel gears).  I suspect some variant of bronze is more likely to be used for reel gears as opposed to brass, due to the lower metal to metal friction exhibited by (most) bronzes, but the kicker, as it is all too often in manufacturing, is that bronzes tend to be more expensive than brasses.  So, you tell me.

All in all, the Olympic LG 450 III is a bigger reel, holding decent quantities of mid-sized lines, and a good candidate for those after freshwater fish such



--LG 450 reel --

as medium sized northern pike, catfish, carp, buffalo, stripers and muskies.  I don't know about salt water operation, and would suspect the need for thorough rinsing and more frequent cleaning and maintenance if so used.  General design and construction seems quite strong, with possibly the smallest question mark on that cast metal main gear and the external bail trip.  Looking forward to getting this one out on the water!

[alantani]

nicely done!!!!!

[foakes]

The Olympic reels of this era were of a good quality —- similar in engineering and function to the Daiwa's of the time. Maybe even a little better.

Nice layout!

Thanks, Fred

[Midway Tommy]

Nice explanation and run through, Frank!

Those reels were offered in the late 1970s. I'm pretty sure the MK IIIs were mostly monikered as "Let's Go".

A word of caution regarding the Teflon dry lubricants. I bought a can of Dupont shortly after it came out and used it a couple of times on some spinners. It seemed to gum everything up so I quit using it on reels. I lubed our Sequoia rear door latch with it awhile back and within about a week the latch became near impossible to operate. Our mechanic took a look at the mechanism to replace it and immediately knew the cause. He said the Teflon lube lines are terrible and cause all sorts of gumming issues. He removed the latch, cleaned all the gunk off and relubed it with a normal spay lube and it works just fine now. After I tried the latch he cleaned and lubed I immediately through that near full can of Teflon Dry Lube in the trash. I'll never buy or use it again.

[CincyDavid]

Cool tutorial!