I just upgraded my Shimano TLD 20/40 star with new carbonex drags and new spool bearings, replacing the left side plate bushing with a bearing using Alan's tutorial as a guide. I removed the dust shields on the bearings (I don't believe I damaged them), cleaned the bearings, which rotate great without lube, and lubricated with Reel X. I assembled the reel and the freespool was terrible! 10 seconds max. I repeated the process with the bearings and used Quantum Hot Sauce in place of the Reel X. The freespool improved but it still is not acceptable. Maybe 15 seconds. I'm pretty sure my assembly of the reel is correct so that there are no mechanical impedance. What does it take to get great freespooling? This reel should freespool for 60 seconds without much trouble. I'm pretty new to this game so I'm obviously missing the boat on this one. Any help would be appreciated! BTW, this board rocks!
both products you used are fine. is the spool full with line? is the drag preset backed off all the way?
the spool shaft might be getting bound up inside of the pinion gear. VERY CAREFULLY run a high speed drill inside the pinion gear to polish it out inside. use a drill bit that is just one size smaller than the pinion gear. please don't get anything caught inside the pinion gear. alan
Yes, the spool is loaded with line and the star drag is backed off all the way though there is some residual drag even when the star is full backed off; just enough that the spool will spin a little. I checked the drag stack and it appears to look like everything is correctly assembled.
Alan, you bring up a really good point. That interface with the pinion gear could be the problem. Maybe too much grease? A burr on the shaft or the pinion gear? I know the spool shaft slides right into place when reassembling the reel. I'll definitely check that area out and report my results.
Thanks for the ideas!
First, I would clean off grease (if any) the spool shafts on both sides, the inside races of the bearings, then the inside of the pinion gear. Then add hot sauce to the shafts, inner races of the bearings, and the pinion gear. Light grease on the gear itself, but oil on the inner areas. This should free up a bit.
Bingo! Cleaned the grease off the spool shaft, inside bearing races, and pinion gear thru hole. Lightly lubed each with Quantum Hot Sauce and got 45 seconds of freespool. That's good enough for me! Thanks for all the input, guys!
whew! glad it worked. the next suggestion was a new set of bearings!