349H 3+0 to 349 7+1 Conversion

[Keta]

Thanks to George my search for a 349H turned into a search for a 349 and I fianaly got the parts to do it.  For years I thought the reels I had were the slow speed 349 but George posted dimentions of the gears and I found out I alredy had a few 349H reels.  Well...then I had to have a 349 .  After a long search I located a 12-349 Yoke, a 13-349 Pinion Gear and a 5-349 main gear, all NOS.  George mentioned using 113H CF washers and I had a set of reformed .020 ones setting around so I drew up some metal washers and had them cut from .035 SS for this reel.

A 5+1 349/349H can be made using stock Penn metal washers or Smooth Drag has much better SS 349H metal washers.  I have a few spare .035 349 washers but not many.

I mixed up the main gears in the photo (sure glad I didn't try this in the reel) but the rest is a 349 7+1 on the left 349H on the right.  If you look close at the bridge you will see a hand made SS 15-349 AR dog.

[George4741]

Good job, Lee.  What are you going to try it out on first, perhaps halibut?  It should be a heck of a winch with it's low gear ratio and 1+7 drag.

I will probably keep mine with a 1+5 drag.  I don't want to stress the old boy too much.

[Keta]

First, thank you for the help in getting my first 349.

Halibut is the only thing that we have here that will give a reel like this a good test unless I can convince someone to target salmon sharks.  I'm thinking about bench testing it to see if I can tear the ears off of the thin eared washers but sometime in the future I'll cut some .047 washers and convert it to a 5+1.  Bryan suggested putting the Belleville washers in a different location, one on top of the last keyed washer and one under the star and it seems to work well.

BTW, I have the 12-349 yoke drawn up and ready to test cut and drop into my reel, SS 15-349 dogs next.

[George4741]

Lee, if I renewed your interest in the 349/349H, you're welcome.  I think they are neat reels.  Thanks again for the washers. 

If I remember right, you've mentioned seeing some wharped 349 spools, I suppose from using mono.  If I decided to "tank" a 349, I'm thinking I should replace the stock spool with a Newell.  Would an aluminum Newell spool be less likely to get out-of-round? 

[Keta]

I think so but I now fill the spools with low compressing/stretch Dacron or Spectra with a 10'-200' mono topshots, the shorter the better for my use.  Did I send you the link too the Newll 349 spool source?

[Cone]

Nice Lee.