Well, way back when Alan started sharing his knowledge I was lucky enough to hang out at a couple of reel seminars, and help out once when he was working the Sportsmans Expo. I actually felt pretty confident and Tani-ized a bunch of reels, when that just meant a simple drag upgrade and greasing everything, lol. But then life got in the way, and I have not worked on any of my reels, just fished them. I'm talking years and years. I thought ALL my reels were good to go......
Well I just bought some Accuframes from Randy for my 501s. I decided today I would get my reels cleaned up for next years Salmon. I greased all the screws, etc. I got to the drags on both and discovered they were both original dry stack. Never having issues over a few years, I assumed I had already done them. Anyway the mistakes showed up when I tried reassembling. I made the dog fall out and land next to the gear sleeve making it impossible to get back together, I dropped the bridge screws repeatedly, I dropped only the tiniest parts, discovered carb cleaner eats plastic, and enjoyed the hell out of myself, until the wife got home. I had decided to jump into an old 500s at the last minute but was getting tired and couldn't get it back together either until I realized I put the spacer bar screws back in before slapping the sideplate up to it, lol.
Don't wait as long as I did to play with your stuff. Lucky for me I always rinsed my reels and only had minor salt intrusion, and almost no pitting resulted. I was really surprised in the variation of assembly and materials and stars. So here I go again........and oh, I didn't spend a dime.
wow, those expos were a long time ago! ;D
And I couldn't tell how long to save my life. ???
the kids were little. figure 12-14 year ago..... ;D