Hello Alan and Co.
It's Limey here from the UK asking for help.
I run a couple of old Penn 100 Surfmasters and a 200 Surfmaster for some of my beach fishing. I like the reels as they hold a good ammount of 25lb Line and have a powerful retreive. The only problem that I experience is that the bearings seem to knock and rattle after a couple of dozen hard casts. I have repleaced them and the problem is the same. I clean and lube after each session and even adda extra lube during fishing. I have tried grease and varying viscosities of oil.
I'm using 13' all carbon rods rated for 4-8oz to throw 6oz of lead about 140yrds. I'm guessing that I might be asking a bit much of the old brass bushes to perform like a modern ball bearing race. I'm told that Newell produced some teflon or ceramic bearings for the surfmaster called EM bearings but I have no idea if any are still available or where to get them.
Can anyone help?
Many thanks
Limey
A couple things to look at: First, are you setting the end bushings so that there is a tiny bit of side-to-sde slop on the spool? You're supposed to do that with all of the classic Penn conventionals. If you cinch them down as an anti-backlash device, you'll ruin the bushings very quickly. Second, are the spools still true? Those reels had a tough time with mono and if your spools are out of round, the bushings will go very quickly. Finally, Newell did make some teflon bushings that do improve things a bit. I don't believe they are made any longer but you can often find them new on eBay. Dave, a guy who has the eBay name "jambythesea" often has them. Good luck and tight lines.
Many thanks.
The spools are alloy models and were all purchased new by me. They always have end float and I have intalled a couple of rare earth magnets in the side plate. I have also replaced the bearings with new. I'll try to get hold of the guy you mention on e-bay.
Tight lines all
Limey