Reel Repair by Alan Tani

General Maintenance Tips => General Questions and Trouble Shooting => Topic started by: spottybastard on March 21, 2013, 12:41:18 AM

Title: What to do with a brand new reel before going fishing
Post by: spottybastard on March 21, 2013, 12:41:18 AM
Alan and friends,

I have two brand new reels waiting to be spooled up and taken out.  One is a Penn Spinfisher V-3500 and the other is a Penn Fathom 15LW.

I guess a better way of asking is what is the standard procedure to do with a brand new reel?  I'm not only a spotty b******d but a cheap one too ,so I want these to last forever.

Title: Re: What to do with a brand new reel before going fishing
Post by: Keta on March 21, 2013, 12:52:45 AM
I can't help on the spinner but if your FTH15 is like my FTH25N all you need to do is spread a little grease on the inside metal parts and wax the spool.  The drags on my 25N were greased and the screws had a bit of grease on them....oh yea, you will need to put line on them and mount them on a rod too ;D
Title: Re: What to do with a brand new reel before going fishing
Post by: johndtuttle on March 21, 2013, 01:10:03 AM
Penn has been doing a great job getting grease inside their reels recently but I would never blindly expect that a reel is fine on the inside without seeing for myself first.

You can take a look at a reelspeed video on the Fathom or use my Torque 25N tutorial (the designs are nearly identical) and take a look at the Spinfisher V tutorial on this site for a look at what all the issues are. There are a few spots here and there that need some additional grease and especially on the SpinfisherV you need to get some light oil in the line roller and keep it maintained or the bearing in there will seize very soon.

best regards
Title: Re: What to do with a brand new reel before going fishing
Post by: mccandrj on March 29, 2013, 08:44:22 PM
Anybody have an idea when Penn is going to get smart and start making Internationals for lefties? ;D
Title: Re: What to do with a brand new reel before going fishing
Post by: Bryan Young on March 29, 2013, 10:35:03 PM
Quote from: mccandrj on March 29, 2013, 08:44:22 PM
Anybody have an idea when Penn is going to get smart and start making Internationals for lefties? ;D
If people start hitting up the stores and sales reps at the shows, I'm sure they would take it into consideration if it was not a complete redesign.