Reel Repair by Alan Tani

No, middle name is just "Joseph".

Glad to help out a bit.

Best, Fred

You may not save all of them, Chris —-

But it is certainly possible...

Really depends not so much on the silt and debris contamination —- depends more on the wear present before they got dunked.

I once found  a Daiwa Sea-Line LC mounted to a rod with trolling flashers still attached.  Obviously flipped out of someone's boat when trolling up at Huntington Lake.  Got snagged on an underwater ancient stump.  I was on a snowmobile, the lake had receded over the Winter, it was now Spring —- and the combo had been underwater for likely 5 months, or so.

Anyway, I dried it out, never disassembled it, just oiled the LW and loaded on new line —- fished it out of Moss Landing for 3 years for ocean Salmon.  It worked flawlessly, then I gave it to my bro-in-law —- he still uses it after over 30 years.

Doesn't seem like this would be possible with a graphite reel sporting that plastic line counter and level-wind system —- but it surprised me.

I think you will do well on these.

Don't replace the bearings until you clean them, regrease, and test function.  You might find they are fine.

Keep us in the loop!

Best Regards, Fred

That red snakeskin is purdy!

-J

Your middle name I'm guessing is "awesome" Fred? 

I'm kinda different as I like old antique stuff. I have a 1925 RCA speaker and 1927 RCA radiola 18 that I listen to AM radio on. Also a 1950's Bakelite RCA AM/FM. They don't make stuff like they used to and although new stuff is good too it just doesn't have that "sit down and let me tell you a story" kind of appeal..

Thanks again Fred, I'm gonna run the 110 on a Fenwick voyageur and I'll let you know what I pull in.. 

You should not get rid of either of those reels, Robert —-

The 221 is a rare version of the more common 220.  Only 1 of 50 of these were made in the 221 (high speed version @ 1:5 gears).  It is easily reversible to either left or right angler orientation.  You will love fishing this reel, as well as the little 110.

Notice that the 110 Microlite has the SAME sized frame casing as the larger 221.  Only difference is the smaller size of the rotor and spool.

If you decide to part with the 221 or the 110 —- I would buy them in a flash.  Part in the mail to you today, N/C.

Best Regards, Fred

Picked these up yesterday locally, I found the 110 booklet in the house floor safe. I think the guy that lit my mom's house on fire last year must have pawned the reel at some point.

Never heard of Quick reels, but oddly enough I wanted the reel that went with the book so here we are.

Flipped the 110 to left for me, not sure I'll fish the 221 but if I do I can flip the handle on that too.

Took both reels apart last night and I guess the Carmel textured grease was to be expected. Cleaned them both throughout and both are good(no parts out of spec) to go.

The 110 is only missing that goofy leather drag washer that rides the top of the spool. I want to thank Fred for helping me with that part and I'm still amazed looking at older post here from Fred the amount of parts and knowledge on these timeless pieces he has in his arsenal.

The box for the 221 is interesting, worn a bit, yes but an interesting display box nonetheless.

Thank you for your help.
Kindest regards gary

Quote from: JasonGotaProblem on September 04, 2026, 03:03:21 PMMy biggest concern would be those line counters. From what I understand they're quite tricky to service.

not just too tricky to service, but very sensitive to debris or small rocks/dirt on the system, the linecounter use lots of small parts and its pretty easy to break, on budget / cheap reels it doesnt worth the repair that part.

Quote from: oldmanjoe on September 08, 2026, 03:22:18 PMYesterday I had a chance to mix up some white and red ,to make pink .  Shot a test to see what it looks like after baking .  I like it so far , and it is a start for many layers of powder to follow for a Unicorn theme .    Still trying to figure out how to lay the other colors ..

Interesting start. There's no wrong answers. I'm excited to watch this advance.

I'm getting much better now but no gain weight ,gain some muscle and strengh . My niece just bought a house so I rebuild one of my Honda mower HR215 as a gift for her . I can cut the grass now . My niece have a big pine tree in front yard then too much pine needle to clean up so I call a tree guy I know to cut that tree