Penn 340 - Spool shaft seized up in pinion gear

[drichitt]

I have a Penn 340 where the spool shaft has seized up in the pinion gear or bearing. I can get the shaft end to move down flush with the side of the pinion but can't get it to budge any further. I have let it soak overnight with PB Blaster and tried again using a hammer and punch tool to release the shaft. I am afraid to go at it too hard for fear of busting out the bearing cup in the side plate.  Am I approaching this correctly? Any suggestions?

Thanks
Don

[alantani]

ok, first, plan on having to replace the pinion gear.  if you get the original one out in one piece so much the better. you will need two identical screwdrivers.  from either side, slide the blades of the screw driver underneath the yoke,  the left handed screwdriver is twisted counter-clockwise.  the right handed screwdriver is twisted clockwise.  this will provide equal lift under the yoke to lift up the yoke and the pinion gear as a unit. 

the inside edges of the screwdriver blades will lift the yoke, the ouside edges of the blades will dig in the graphite.  hopefully, you will not damage anything.  worst case, you can grab a pair of channel locks and just twist if off.  you will need a new pinion gear at that point, and maybe even a new yoke. 

[drichitt]

Thanks Alan. I started back at it with your suggestions. The pinion quickly became toast. It was so seized on there. I thought there was a layer of graphite between the spool and the bearing, but there isn't. During this whole process I could see the yoke had become slightly bent and then I realized it was the yoke that was not letting the 'spool-bearing-pinion' assembly drop away from the side plate. So I decided to sacrifice the yoke and was able to use some needle-nose plyers and bend the ends up over the graphite posts and remove the yoke. With that the spool dropped away from the side plate. With more maneuvering room and no fear of damaging the side plate, the pinion quickly went from destroyed to unrecognizable but did finally give up its hold on the spool shaft. Bearing is fine but the end of the spool shaft does have some very slight grooves in it as per this slightly blurry pic....
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I used some emery cloth and made sure the roughed up area was smooth and slid a new pinion gear over it. Seems to be happy. Anyone have reservations about the spool being permanently damaged with those grooves?

Thanks
Don

[alantani]

the spool is good. just leave a light coat of grease on the spool shaft to make sure this doesn't happen again.   

[Alto Mare]

It might be a good idea to chuck up that spool on a drill, hold the damaged shaft in some stainless steel wool and let it spin while moving the wool in and out a little. This should clean it nicely.
I noticed  lots of Newells and Penn Graphite reels have this issue the most .