Modifying Accurate Boss sideplate to replace AR bearing with bigger Shimano AR

[jonathan.han]

Hi all,

This would be my first post on Alan's board, but I have been busy crabbing and other fishing responsibilities to post the writeup. About 2-3 months ago, someone had me go through their Accurate 870. These older Accurates came with a hexagonal AR roller bearing. This one was bad and could not hold more than about 4-5lbs. of drag before slipping causing the handle to do the Accurate rewind. Alan had been telling me that I could modify the sideplate to accept a Shimano AR bearing or find one that would fit the stock cavity for the AR bearing. It is bigger in contact area=more stopping power, Stainless Steel, and Stainless steel. I guess the old, original Accurate bearing is discontinued.

Then one day, I decided to try and grind out the cavity to make it fit the Shimano AR bearing. The Shimano AR bearing is a bit taller in height. Also, The Shimano AR has a circular shape with hexagonal keys, very much unlike the hexagonal Accurate AR. Sorry, didn't take a photo of the difference.



Here is the difference in height of the Shimano AR being seated in the Accurate sideplate. This was mocked up to get an idea of how much material would be removed (clearance we were going to need). I was only able to insert the Shimano AR after grinding a few notches for the shape of the Shimano AR.



Here are the "keys" on a SHimano AR. Just for demostrative purposes. The Shimano AR I used was much shorter in height. You can also notice that there is a lot of blue plastic from the top edge of the bearing that you COULD grind away to reduce the height of the AR bearing overall and reduce the material yopu have to grind out of the Accurate sideplate.


After an hour or so of grinding and checking fitment of the bearing in the, now modified AR cavity, I ground down the Shimano AR bearing. Main reason: So as not to weaken the sideplate by removing material in a key area. Second reason: Not to grind through the sideplate. There's not a lot there and without a thoroughly conceptualized CAD model, I decided to make life easier.



Now, he can take a stock Shimano AR bearing, grind it down and replace it if he (or me) needs to. After this was done, the reel was stripped and serviced as usual. I think someone could make a jig to support it in a vise and use an endmill for cleaner results, but making a fixture takes way too much time for a job you may only do a few times in a lifetime. I opted for freehand work and it came out well. The other possible result would've been removing too much material and not finding a bearing to fit the gouged out cavity and have to find a new sideplate. That would be real cost-effective then. If you're going to do this for someone, I spent a good 2 hours on it. Just grinding and mocking up so I don't remove too much material. Mock-up twice, grind once. Hope this helps some

[alantani]

nice post, jonathan!!!!!!

[hafnor]

NICE!

[mitchman]

Wow you are brave!

[johndtuttle]

very cool. Thx for the post. 

[jonathan.han]

I think it was an easier procedure than I had initially anticipated. I had been dilly-dallying over it for a span of around 2 months and the idea of handgrinding the cavity for the AR bearing was not one I had been looking forward to. But, once I got do to it. It was just the patience required for this tedious task that was challenging more than anything. A little grind here, get the calipers and check the depth. And more of that continued about a countless times. Nice to see that there is a solution for people with these reels with this issue. As usual, this procedure much like all the others in the forum will make the reel solid over it's stock AR system.

[Alto Mare]

Very nice, Jonathan! Thanks for sharing it with us.

[eldoradoman]

Great post.  Does anyone know which Shimano AR bearing was used?  I have an older 870 that I may change out the ar bearing as well.