I just recently purchased a 704Z and I want to see if anyone in here knows anyone or can install a one way bearing to get rid of the dog style anti reverse. I know it's been done but I'm not sure how to do it. Please and thanks-Daniel
My exspeariance one way bearings dont last very long, I would leave it as is, just service it, and dont place any grease near the drag dog, as the grease restricts the pivot, just light oil, cheers Don.
Greetings, Daniel, from Minnesota, and welcome to the site. Your plan sounds interesting; looking forward to more feedback on it.
Frank
Tough one. The logical place to put it would be where the gear shaft penetrates the frame. But there is not enough material there to bore out the frame and insert a roller clutch bearing. I'm anxious to see how you do it.
I hope my asking why you want to do that doesn't offend you. I don't want to argue the point, I'm just curious. Have you fished with it yet? You may want to before trying this.
Quote from: Danielramdial on July 19, 2025, 01:41:14 PMI just recently purchased a 704Z and I want to see if anyone in here knows anyone or can install a one way bearing to get rid of the dog style anti reverse. I know it's been done but I'm not sure how to do it. Please and thanks-Daniel
Have a look here , the whole thread may be what you are looking to do with your reel .
https://www.stripers247.com/threads/penn-704z.17952/#post-126584
There is several ways to achieve anti reverse .
Remember that a one way bearing (roller clutch) does not provide radial support. If you replace a bushing (plain bearing) with a one-way bearing, that part of the shaft is no longer properly supported, which means a shorter lifespan for the clutch and any parts relying on shaft alignment.
A proper one way bearing design requires separate bearings to support the load. There are combination roller clutch/ball or roller bearings built into a single part, but these are harder to find, and require more accessible shaft length.
And the housing for the roller clutch has to be reasonably well aligned. This is not a Dremel job.
I have no doubt that someone with the proper equipment and skills could pull this off on a 704 if there is enough meat to bore out a spot in the frame at one of the various bearing/bushing locations in the drive train. Whether this would be an improvement for the reel seems much more dubious, even if you buy into the argument that a one-way bearing is an inherently better anti reverse mechanism than a classic dog/ratchet, which is also debatable.
Maybe it is worth a shot for some folk who just want to see if they can do it. For me... meh.
-J
Personally, I've never been a fan of instant one way bearing anti-reverse designs, mainly because of most of the reasons J pointed out. To me, when used as intended, the traditional dawg & ratchet design has always been much more dependable. Traditional A/R designs were never intended to be haphazardly slammed into operation.
I have had multiple ARB reels fail in the past five years, most of which are not repairable since the exact fit ARB is no longer available.
I've never had any failure from a dog style AR, in the fifty-some years I've been fishing those reels.
the instant AR from the bearings is kinda nice to have, but not at the price of the frequent failures of ARBs.