Maybe this is common and there is an easy fix. My new SS gear sleeves for my 501 and 506 are a little proud when I try to install a 24-155 or a 26-66 handle and the nut will not tighten enough. A 24-56 has a thicker arm and works well but I'd like to use the 24-66 on my 501. I'm trying to avoid taking a file to the gear sleeve but maybe that is standard practice?
Try a 15-49 or shim washers.
Not sure I completely understand the problem, but it sounds like the spacing sleeve, part # 9-60, is too short. This is the sleeve under the Star. You could try a thin spacer on top of the sleeve, or between Star and handle. I believe Mystic Parts has 3 different lengths of these spacing sleeves if you want a new one. I know I have filed this sleeve down when I didn't have enough drag adjustment.
Get a handle that has a thicker blade. Cortez Conversions has nice aftermarket thick blades and also has sweet knobs. Problem solved
Are you out of your realy nice ones Ted?
Mac, it sounds like the issue is above the sleve where the handle arm rests and a spacer sleve, spacer washer or bellvill washer will not address the problem.
Thanks Lee. I wasn't sure I understood the issue. Just checked Mystic, and they are out of all the various length spacers except for one.
Yeah you are gonna want to shim that. A washer below the blade will help.
Quote from: Keta on June 10, 2025, 01:16:19 AMAre you out of your realy nice ones Ted?
Mac, it sounds like the issue is above the sleve where the handle arm rests and a spacer sleve, spacer washer or bellvill washer will not address the problem.
I do still have a few thick blades.....just thought I'd mention Cortez Conversions as an option....Tom has some really nice offset blades at a great price
You maybe could also use a shim washer underneath the handle nut.
Here's the Cortez Conversions nice offset blade with one of his acrylic knobs. These are the cats meow
My Cortez knob is ice blue on a ice blue arm on a ice blue narrow 113H.
If my memory serves me correctly, there is a problem with some runs of some aftermarket gear sleeves for the Penns. This has to do with a chamfer:
The threads on the handle lock nut (23-60) cannot be cut all the way to the head. This does not matter as long as the lock nut final clearance is less than the handle arm thickness.
The top of the threaded hole in the gear sleeve has a chamfer cut to accommodate a few extra turns, but on some sleeves (or maybe some combinations of sleeves and handle nuts), it is not deep enough, so the handle nut binds on the threads before it can tighten on the handle arm.
You might want to double check to see if this is the actual issue. If it turns out that your original premise of the sleeve end standing out a bit too proud was correct, filing down the end will shorten the chamfer section, and you could end up the other problem, and still have a loose fit.
Regarding washers- putting one under the handle arm requires a washer with two flats that match the shaft. The flats cut on these gear sleeves are not a standard double d-shaft shape, so good luck finding one. Plus, this junction is a weak spot on the design, and usually where these reels fail first. The stainless sleeve helps, but still a risky spot. Sticking a washer underneath could give you a fit that is not as tight.
Short of cutting a new chamfer in the threaded hole or exchanging the sleeve (if the sleeve is the problem), I would agree with the other posts - you are pretty much stuck with going with a thicker handle arm or a washer on top of the handle arm. This washer might need a bit of customization to clear the lock screw head.
-J
Quote from: jurelometer on June 10, 2025, 05:24:09 PMIf my memory serves me correctly, there is a problem with some runs of some aftermarket gear sleeves for the Penns. This has to do with a chamfer:
The threads on the handle lock nut (23-60) cannot be cut all the way to the head. This does not matter as long as the lock nut final clearance is less than the handle arm thickness.
The top of the threaded hole in the gear sleeve has a chamfer cut to accommodate a few extra turns, but on some sleeves (or maybe some combinations of sleeves and handle nuts), it is not deep enough, so the handle nut binds on the threads before it can tighten on the handle arm.
You might want to double check to see if this is the actual issue. If it turns out that your original premise of the sleeve end standing out a bit too proud was correct, filing down the end will shorten the chamfer section, and you could end up the other problem, and still have a loose fit.
Regarding washers- putting one under the handle arm requires a washer with two flats that match the shaft. The flats cut on these gear sleeves are not a standard double d-shaft shape, so good luck finding one. Plus, this junction is a weak spot on the design, and usually where these reels fail first. The stainless sleeve helps, but still a risky spot. Sticking a washer underneath could give you a fit that is not as tight.
Short of cutting a new chamfer in the threaded hole or exchanging the sleeve (if the sleeve is the problem), I would agree with the other posts - you are pretty much stuck with going with a thicker handle arm or a washer on top of the handle arm. This washer might need a bit of customization to clear the lock screw head.
-J
I guess you could also file down a shoulder that is smaller than the ID of the threads, but this would weaken the handle nut, which is made of brass and already a bit on the weak side.
-J
He has a SS gearsleve. Filing the "bolt" shorter would cure it from bottoming out if that is the problem and would not compromise the gear sleeve.
I don't think it's a bottoming out issue. The height of the skinny part of the gear sleeve that the handle sits on is greater than the thickness of the handle. So with it tightened down there's some slop. Nothing he could do to the handle nut would cure that. He needs to either fill the gap or shrink the gap.
If it is not the reject gearsleve.
Quote from: jurelometer on June 10, 2025, 05:24:09 PMIf my memory serves me correctly, there is a problem with some runs of some aftermarket gear sleeves for the Penns. This has to do with a chamfer:
Quote from: Keta on June 11, 2025, 12:23:42 AMHe has a SS gearsleve. Filing the "bolt" shorter would cure it from bottoming out if that is the problem and would not compromise the gear sleeve.
This problem is with some SS gear sleeves. I ran into it once. I tried shortening the nut before I figured it out. The problem is not bottoming out, so making the handle nut shorter does not help.
The problem is that the handle nuts are not threaded right up to the head. If the chamfer in the hole in the gear sleeve is not cut deep enough, then the nut can bind when it runs out of threads before it can tighten down on thinner handle arms.
There is a thread here somewhere that discusses this issue. Don't know if this is also the problem that the OP is encountering, but the new gear sleeve and symptoms make me suspicious.
Maybe you are right that the hole is too short, but that is a different theory with a different solution.the OP can measure the hole depth to figure out which one it is.
Quote from: JasonGotaProblem on June 11, 2025, 01:58:37 AMI don't think it's a bottoming out issue. The height of the skinny part of the gear sleeve that the handle sits on is greater than the thickness of the handle. So with it tightened down there's some slop. Nothing he could do to the handle nut would cure that. He needs to either fill the gap or shrink the gap.
That was the next thing that I thought. But it turned out that the sleeve wasn't proud. But you are right that if the sleeve is proud, messing with the nut doesn't help. But as noted before, filing down the sleeve also removes some of the chamfer that makes the top of the hole wider, providing relief for the lack of threads near the head, in which case the OP might end up with my problem.
With a brass sleeve, everything gets mushed together more easily, so less of an issue.
A thicker arm or a top washer will work in all scenarios without filing.
Hopefully the OP reports back on the results.
-J
OK, a easy fix with a counter sink.
Jurelometer is right on with what I have found with some aftermarket stainless sleeves - they are quality, and they are machined and threaded both externally and internally just fine, but do not have an Internal chamfer at the top of the sleeve that accomodates what is basically a filet under the head of the screw. So the center hole is a perfect hole, threaded all the way to the top - where in the factory sleeve there is a chamfer at the top that is not threaded and it allows that filet under the handle screw to seat. I have corrected this with a couple quick kisses with the Dremel, and then chase the threads but it can be nerve racking because you can certainly goober the threads on a sleeve. - john
I have a 24-49(49) handle on one of my 500s that works nicely.
I have instaled dozens of SS gearsleves and must be lucky as I have never seen this.
Maybe some handle screws are worse than others? I only tried two.
Brewcrafter: what is the thread size? I am wondering if a stainless hex head bolt/screw could be adapted.
Burrs on a rotary tool will work on stainless, but yeah, probably need to re-tap. The threads on those plated brass handle screws are not very tough. Cutting with a counter-sink would be more thread friendly, but you probably need a high quality one made from HSS. Both are kind of expensive if fixing just one reel.
-J
Here's a pic of one of my 98-505 gear sleeves mated with a 24-66 handle. I don't have a 24-155 handle to test fit.
My gear sleeves have a small counterbore to accommodate the thread lead out on the handle nuts.
Not having the sleeve, handle, or nut to inspect, I can't say what the problem could be.
I have some 155 handles and at least one of Tom's jigmaster sleeves that isn't currently on a reel. I can try to reproduce the problem. The 155 handles are... Pretty thin. And also a 155 handle was meant to fit on a surf master type sleeve (98-155 I think), though the hole is the same shape. I believe those are a hair shorter in the relevant region. I have all these parts. I can go investigate. I just got a dig em out.
Quote from: Cortez_Conversions on June 11, 2025, 05:36:44 PMHere's a pic of one of my 98-505 gear sleeves mated with a 24-66 handle. I don't have a 24-155 handle to test fit.
My gear sleeves have a small counterbore to accommodate the thread lead out on the handle nuts.
Not having the sleeve, handle, or nut to inspect, I can't say what the problem could be.
Thanks Tom.
I don't know who made the SS sleeve that I had a problem with. There was no counterbore, just a pretty tiny chamfer, same as what would be put on a nut. The threads run all the way to a chamfer. Same as what Brewcrafter noted. A counterbore seems like a nicer solution than a large chamfer.
So that makes me pretty confident that mine was not a Cortez gear sleeve. I only had this problem with one out of a half dozen or so that I have installed. I am just a hobbyist, so I don't see a lot.
And we don't know for sure that this is the problem that the OP encountered.
Nothing gets this community activity going like a Penn gear sleeve issue :)
-J
Quote from: jurelometer on June 11, 2025, 07:51:03 PMI don't know who made the SS sleeve that I had a problem with. There was no counterbore, just a pretty tiny chamfer, same as what would be put on a nut. The threads run all the way to a chamfer. Same as what Brewcrafter noted. A counterbore seems like a nicer solution than a large chamfer.
So that makes me pretty confident that mine was not a Cortez gear sleeve. I only had this problem with one out of a half dozen or so that I have installed. I am just a hobbyist, so I don't see a lot.
And we don't know for sure that this is the problem that the OP encountered.
Agreed! I have NEVER had an issue with Tom's/Cortez stuff, and I would hate if anyone following this thread were to think that - sleeves and anything else from Tom have always been to spec. But that is not unusual fof any of the folks on this forum that we are blessed with aftermarket parts. And I have no idea where my problematic sleeves came from. but it is an easy fix. - john
Nothing gets this community activity going like a Penn gear sleeve issue :)
HA! Lot's of writing for what seems like a simple fix. A non-corroding shim washer under the handle nut. You can easily file down part of an aluminum washer so the handle nut-lock screw doesn't contact the washer.
Sorry for the late reply. And thanks for the advice. Tom at CC has been very helpful. My 24-155 that came on my 501 is a tad thinner than than the 24-66 or the 24-56. I now have a 24-66 on my 501 with the Cortez Conversions gear sleeve and it is nice and tight. On my wish list is a handle arm and grip, and side plates, and Magnum Jigmaster kit, and ...
Welcome to the rabbit hole.
I don't have any issues with my Cortez 98-505 gear sleeves mated with a 24-155 or 24-56 handle. My good buddy recently bought a Penn 146 with a SS gear sleeve with a loose 24-66 handle. We took it apart and measured the gear sleeve. It doesn't fit any of the smaller handle but fits the bigger such as the 24-56 and the non-Penn handle he has. :P