Sometimes, you just have to save a reel...having that uncanny ability of seeing the (reel) beauty thru all of the dirt and grime will get ya every time! Someone had the oscillation block in backwards causing the reel to lock up when cranking the handle, and they mucked up 2 of the screws that hold the side cover on. The old screws are still in the pictures here. I'm in a daggum wheelchair at the moment and am unable to get out to my shop...GRrrr! The little South Bend 820 works great now and feels surprising smooth for a Hong Kong cheapie. I'll give the little 820 a real workout on some Crappie and Bluegills this spring and see how it holds up. Thanks for looking. :-\ The works small.jpg
Somehow I posted 2 pics. The second picture is bigger.
Nice work. Cleaned up great. I love it when that happens.
Cheers:
Todd
The paint is pretty nice. That was 90% of the reason I decided to tear into it. ;D
Lookin' purdy. They aren't bad reels. Got an 880 that needs a line roller; foakes is gonna send me some SB parts & maybe I'll luck out on a roller.
Frank
The Hong Kong built South Bend reels were nice reels to use but you find quite a few with bad main gears,mainly the 2 larger ones.
Frank,The 880 and the 760a used the same line roller,if you don't come up with anything I have some parts reels that I could rob.
It cleaned up well! A look inside at the drive train sure would be nice. :D
Nice, Mark
Good job!
Much obliged for the offer, swede 53. Will get back to you if nothing materializes in the immediate future. You're in WI, which ain't too far from me in MN. And I see your birth year is '53, which also only misses me by that | | much!
Frank
Sent you a PM, swede 53.
Frank
221126
A recent p/u, one of three I got. Looks pretty nice, have yet to clean it-up. Made in Japan.
Got one of those 725As new back in 1971 when the crank handle stud on my GM 304 main gear broke off, Greg. I didn't know much regarding quality back then. Thought I was getting something decent since it was a SB. Found out pretty quickly it was just standard run-of-the-mill issue for those days, potmetal gearing, etc. Still have it, looks like new because I opted for a Cardinal 4 pretty quickly. I don't think I would use it on anything bigger than crappie or bluegill.
Quote from: Gfish on November 27, 2022, 11:17:10 PMA recent p/u, one of three I got. Looks pretty nice, have yet to clean it-up. Made in Japan.
Does the line roller of your reel actually "roll" ? I have several of those green SB reels in various sizes (including the model in your post), and none of their line rollers are able to roll. Not enough clearance for the line roller to roll freely along the shaft, when the bail nut is tightened down.
Still playing with the other 2- reels. Thinkin bout posting the difference between a generation-2(1940's) MG-300 and a gen.-6(circa 1960) 300. Some surprising differences. Will try'n check it out before that, though.
Ok, Nemo, here's what I have so far. My line roller didn't spin either. The lock washer has to go and the nut has to bottom-out when tight, BEFORE it pushes against the bail arm. This can only happen with an acorn nut that has a closed end and is very shallow. There isn't enough room there once the stock nut is tighten'd down, until it runs out of thread. It squeezes the line roller.
Solution might be to grind down the open end of an acorn nut, until it will almost torque down on the bail arm when tightened all the way, but not quite.
Here's an acorn nut that might work. The threads are right, but I haveta grind about 2mm+or-, and see.
Thanks GFish. Yep on all my my similar type South Bends, tightening down that bail nut squeezes the bail arm against the line roller. Result = no rolling.
One would think that their reel designers back then would have fixed this flaw, but no. I'm left with manually rotating my line roller every few months to change its position, if or when a groove starts to form in one part of the metal.
I will say that the 725A performed nicely last month. I slapped it on a light spinning rod and landed several 3+ pound rainbow trout. So, it is capable of handling fish that are bigger than panfish.
Quote from: Catching Nemo on November 30, 2022, 12:41:55 AMOne would think that their reel designers back then would have fixed this flaw, but no.
Pretty standard for the cheaper Asian made reels from that era.
Update on the modified acorn nut thing. Don't have the skills or tools to make it work. Couldn't hold the nut properly and shaved it too high on one side, too low on the other. Shimmed the inside of the nut, but ended up with the bail wire loose. This might eventually break it while actuating the bail.
The roller turned, though!🤪
Learning through failure. The reel is mostly metal. But the quality of said metal doesn't seem to be there. 1-friction drag washer-leather. No rotor ball bearing, but a nice sturdy bushing in there. Spool shaft supported at the bottom. Above average spring pressure in the bail system. A good, but not great small spinner. Don't drop it on a rock, though. Strongest part externally seemed to be the AR lever. Pretty strong internally, too.
Well, I got my SB 880 cleaned up and replaced the line roller (thanks swede 53 for the help). Just gotta wait for spring to test things out. Had a little scraping noise on retrieve; bail flip lever was just grazing the boss on the front of the frame that trips the release. Tried another washer on top of the pinion gear; helped a little, but ended up taking a file to the both the lever and the boss & she quieted right down.
Frank
Frank,glad the part worked out and you got the 880 ready to go,looks like spring is going to be a way's off yet in our part of the country.