going crazy with a blade spring on a 100

[Doug]

I am trying reassemble a penn surfmaster 100. Is there something special about blade springs.I just can't seem to get things lined up the space to work is very small. I tried putting a peice of tubing on the gear sleve to hold everything togeather and taped the screws in place to leave my hands  free. Is there a trick to this before i lose my patience. Any advice appreciated   Doug

[Bryan Young]

Look here for the hint http://alantani.com/index.php?topic=208.0.  Particularly this little trick helps

[Irish Jigger]

Put some grease in the two moulded holes in the Side Plate and insert the springs. This should help to temporarily secure them while you position the Bridge.

[harryk3616]

hi   doug       i use tubing like you do to hold everything together, i use a good masking tape to hold the four screws in, about a 4in. piece so it holds good, i have arthritic hands and fingers so i can't do the spread finger method.  after i tape the screws in, i put the 2 springs on, then the pinion yoke , then i install the ecentric jack to hold everything in place, i put a dab of grease on the pinion so it sticks to the yoke, i slide in the gear assembly, pushing the pinion down as i rotate it, i slide the dog on the screw and i put a dab of grease where the dog spring goes to help  hold it in place so it doesn't go flying, never to be found again. i hope this helps, i'm sure there are different methods , but this works for me.     harryk

[Doug]

Thanks to all for the sugestions. The problem is the size of the end plate on the 100 is so small its hard to manuver the bridge without moving everything out of position. Putting grease on the dog to hold it in place and sliding the spring in place last worked.  thanks again  everyone Doug

[Norcal Pescador]

All of HarryK's tips are very good.    The only thing I do different is I place the dog on the screw and position it out of the way of the main gear as I place the bridge. With the bridge offset a bit from its final position, I swing the dog into position and insert the flat spring using fine-point, curved-tip tweezers. Swing the bridge over and run the screws in. Just another method.

[Keta]

It's hard to explain but easy to do once you get it figured out.