How do I safely remove the VISX16 foot Screws?

[Leonman44]

Hello Folks ! I have been using my VISX16 for quite some time with no issues but yesterday I noticed that there is salt snagged into the foot even that I always spray the reel with deionised water after every single fishing trip. So when I tried to unscrew them they wouldn't come of , I thought that they possibly used blue locktight so I just used my hairdryer but even then I could only get out one of them and I was kinda surprised because I noticed that they put Red locktight in there ! There was a lot of salt trapped underneath the head of the screw too. Anyway from trying too hard I have damaged the heads of the screws but didn't strip them , I have already ordered new ones but I need to somehow remove them without stripping them. My thought is that I have to tear down the whole reel , get the frame out and use wd40 on the screws + a heatgun but before trying anything else I would like to hear your more experienced opinions.


Thank you in advance!

[Penn]

Hi Leon,

These screws use a patch, however we had a few reels over the years have the screws back out and caused the foot to rip off the frame.  Because of this, I know of at least a few dealers apply red loctite on their own prior to selling reels as extra-cautionary.  We do not use red loctite at the factory.  If it is indeed red, you will need to pull the frame off of reel and torch the stand screws. 

tony