Hello Alan,
I somehow stumbled on one of the threads on P&S who mentioned your website. Wow, I didn't know you repair reels. Great site BTW!! Just a short intro and a follow up question. I'm a strictly shorebound angler (no more boats for me) and I fish alot. I use almost exclusively spinning reels and unfortunatey, I abuse them mercillessly. One of the reel is a Shimano Stella 6000FA. Few years ago, in the Outer Banks, my pole got dragged into the sand and out to Atlantic Ocean. Amazingly, I was able to "fish" it out. After I brought my Stella to an authorized Shimano repair shop to get the sand out (really grinding) the reel lost the "smoothness" completely. Although I have no problem and continued fishing with it.
He (the repair guy), was able to remove all of the sand from the bearings and regreased it. But, the reel has that soft but "hissss" sound. Anyway, is this something you can fix? For an expensive reel such as this, after the reel got cleaned (sand out and re-lubed), I expected it to be smooth like almost new.
Thanks,
Peter
well, i can give you a guess. what might have happened was that sand got in between the main and pinion gears. cranking the reel would put small burrs in the gear teeth and it would feel rough when you cranked it. the other possibility is that water got into the bearings and there was a slight amount of corrosion. one option might be to send it directly to shimano in irvine, ca. call 877-577-0600 and ask about the cost of replacing the gears and bearings. they might have a flat rate that could save you a ton of money. i don't know what gears cost, but i'm certain they are expensive. alan