Went fishing for a week to find my mate's Penn International II 50W was out of action (I was hoping to borrow it). Whilst fitting the reel clamp the day before I got there, one of the acorn nuts fell into a small hole on the deck, never to be seen again :( . It is probably at the bottom of the Atlantic by now. A helpful second mate then proceded to 'fit' another nut in the belief that a big spanner would solve the problem of incompatible threads. It didn't >:( ! We now had a completely screwed screw :'( and consequently an unusable reel.
Obtaining part number 34C-050T in the UK is problematic and will take a long time but in the meantime I have sourced a steel bolt and two nuts from that jar of oddments in the garage that can provide a temporary/emergency fix after cutting off the head of the bolt and filing everything nicely. I've tried it and it works, but it will rust so I want to source some threaded stainless rod and stainless nuts as a better temporary solution. This material is readily available here.
Unfortunately, although the fix fits, I am uncetain as to the exact guage of the nuts and bolt - no label on the jar!
The big question is what is the thread of the original Penn part as I don't want to mess up the reel foot by trying to screw in the wrong rod? I know it is 1/4 inch diameter and has 20 teeth per inch and it isn't metric (M6 or anything like it). I am pretty convinced it is the Imperial guage UNC (Unified National Coarse) and isn't UNF (Unified National Fine) but might it be Whitworth? Both UNC and Whitworth have 20 tpi but are not interchangeable. Does anyone know for certain please if the Penn bolt is 1/4" UNC? Many thanks.
Yes, it is 1/4-20 UNC
Thank you so much! I knew someone would know for certain :al