Went out this week and took a 109 that I knew needed work but i wasn't listening to the 'little voice' enough to swap Reels.
In the middle of pulling out line for a drift, the Line hung up between the Spool and the right Side Plate, jammed, cut, now had Bait, Hook, Sinker, and Float out 30' in the middle of a Spadefish swarm. Oh, also had 2 ends in my hand that were not connected. Never before did i have to say, 'don't hit the bait...'. :D
Was lucky to tie the ends together without incident...
Now...
The Reel needs work. Left Bearing is tight to the Side Plate, 20# Mono still finds its way between Spool and Right Side Plate. Your thoughts where to look to tighten the gap.
Thanks
Steve
Is there any side to side play in the spool? Is the spool snug against the right side bearing? If it is you may have to put a thin shim washer under the outer bearing cap for the spool to shift further to the right & take up the slack with the left side bearing. Rudy
I generally adjust all my Reels to minimize the play - adjust to just the barest of clicks
Use thicker line, its the easiest solution. Dunno why Penn made those gaps so big
I am already using 20# mono on this little 109.
I know the gap has been an issue, but I should be using 15# max..
There's a nail-polish trick. Paint the rims of the spool to close the gap. Never did it myself but have seen it work.
Out of curiosity I checked the gaps on my two 109s. One has a plastic spool filled with mostly 15# Ande on top of some dacron, the other a metal spool on which I had filled with 15# dacron and a mono leader. The gaps are pretty tight and I haven't had any problems with them. I couldn't even force the line through the gaps.
Maybe Penn had some variations in the tolerances of some of their spool or side ring batches?
The head-plate has a non-adjustable bushing. Something could be worn out, probably one a the bushings. Could do as Rowdy says with the shim, or buy a new tail-plate bushing... Also, make sure your old adjustable tail-plate bushing is torqued alla way down. How are the threads on it?
Around our neck of the woods — many folks use 109, 9, and 209's for lead core trolling targeting Trout and Kokanee.
The spool under pressure puts a lot of wear on the left and right bushings.
Unless I can effect a reasonable fix quickly and properly by verifying and re-adjusting the tail-plate bushing — the safest fix is just to replace the tail-plate and head-plate bushings as a pair — no further issues.
This is cheap, quick, and effective 99% of the time.
Plus, anything else that could be done to adjust the gap — will just be an issue waiting to be addressed at some point in the future — or not.
Think these are parts 40-109 & 26-109, just from memory — Mystic will have the right info.
Best,
Fred
The gap on the 9 and 109 are pretty tight and meant to be fished with light line.
Actually , other reels as the Surfmaster and such are similar.
You might have other issues that need to be looked at, centering the spool is key.
Bushings or shims will help you get there.
Most later models have a tight gap, the early penn reels had issues with it.
Sal
Get the spool centered and then be more careful pulling line off the reel. To get the line to go into that gap you would need a spool over-run throwing out loose loops.
-steve