Reel Repair by Alan Tani

Some see Christmas tree ornaments, some see reel handles.... I see both !!!

I have this Stradic that somewhat binds at a certain point while retrieving..Upon internal inspection I noticed the piece that holds the shaft and worm gear pawl is hitting the back of the body.Could the worm gear not being all the way in ,causing the pawl slide to travel too far back?

Welcome!  We are all learning from each other here.  You'll fit right in.

Quote from: Geno66 on April 22, 2024, 02:04:55 AMThanks for the replies.

Let me start off by saying that I am neither an engineer nor am I a machinist so some of my choices may not be correct.  I'm happy to listen to any feedback as I view this as a learning experience.

That being said, I chose an angular contact bearing because the original bronze bushing was flanged and the e-clip that secures the assembly to the gear stud rides against the flange.
I do agree that there should be minimal axial loading but I'll be the first to admit that I don't always have the best form when grinding on a big fish.
 

I just finished machining the adapter. 

I still need to turn the cap that covers the bearing.  Then I can polish both of them and give anodizing a try.  That should be interesting as I've never anodized anything before.

Just a hobby reel parts maker myself, but here is what I learned so far on this  topic.  My apologies if you already know some of this stuff:

Boon is right. Axial load when winding on the shaft is a minimal issue.  When we wind hard, the down and (especially) the up part of the motion causes angular load, levering the shaft out of alignment. Depending on the design, this can lead to unaligned gears shredding and/or wear on the shaft to bearing junction.

The primary load challenge for the main gear shaft design is to keep it aligned with the spool shaft.  The best way to do this is to put bearings of some kind on both ends of the main shaft. The common lever drag design does not support the shaft on the spool side, so this is compensated by supporting a longer section of the shaft on the handle side, and keeping the shaft as short as possible. The smarter lever drag designs also put the anti-reverse mechanism on the the spool shaft, so that the drag is not loading the gears and main shaft.

Plain bearings (AKA bushings) have the advantage of holding the alignment straight.  That is one reason why they use plain bearings on things like motor crankshafts.  The longer the plain bearing, the better it can do the alignment part of its job.  Depending on the how tight the fit is, the shaft can wear the bearing in the direction of imbalance or stonger load, but this is harder to do as the bearing length increases.  The other advantages for this particular use case is that wear is rarely catastrophic due to the low RPMs (I have seen some pretty trashed plain bearings), and that plain bearings can be highly corrosion resistant in a location that tends to get saltwater intrusion.

Ball bearings will tend to have less resistance when the shaft is not aligned as the balls can roll up on the sides of the track a little. This means that they are not as good at keeping alignment as a plain bearing, but better at dealing with it when misalignment is present. 

The stainless alloy used in ball bearings is not very saltwater corrosion resistant.

Angular contact bearings are basically the same as standard deep groove ball bearings, but with the track shifted to go up on one side of the bearing more and less on the other side.  This decreases the ability to compensate for alignment issues and increases rolling resistance, but increases the axial load in one direction (decreasing it in the other.  Deep groove ball bearings do handle a decent amount of axial load, so if you want to go with ball bearings (I wouldn't), you might want to shock the specs and see if a standard bearing will get the job done.

The challenge for your solution is that it might decrease the type of support that keeps the main shaft aligned.  Also removing material from the housing will decrease the strength of thinner cast Al walls, but this is probably secondary.

Angular contract bearings have been tried on the spool shaft here by some members with varying success.  The lever drag  does create significant axial load on the spool shaft bearings, but manufacturers that have tried to address this have tended to go with a combination of standard ball bearings and thrust bearings.


No failures in science!  Just more useful knowledge.  There are other reel models (mostly star drags) that can benefit from the type of modification that you are doing as well. 

Please let us know how it goes.

-J

Genoooooooo66!
Welcome to the Forum. I wish I had machining skills like that. Can't wait to see how it turns out.

I think this fella is gonna do just fine here. Welcome aboard.

Do you have an actual lathe or do you also just abuse a drill like me and Joe?

Let me start off by saying that I am neither an engineer nor am I a machinist .   

    Welcome to the forum !    " My dad was a TV repairman also and has a nice tool kit that I play with ".     Looking forward to see your modification .     

The first reel use this drag set up is Dam Quick SLS not Shimano and the first reel Shimano use this is Shimano Bass one ,small reel with big diameter spool .Only for a few year then everyone go back to multi- disk design

Yay!! Nice way to introduce yourself with the ohana, looking forward the next step

Quote from: BocaSnook1 on April 22, 2024, 02:09:29 AMFred,

If you still have any 265 Microlites in stock I would like to purchase one as well.  It will be used for mountain trout fishing here in North Carolina and panfish in South Florida.

Thanks!

Tad

Glad to, Tad —-

I will contact you tomorrow morning.

Best, Fred

 There is no archives from Penn on various subtle changes on certain reels. They really don't care much about that aspect of their product. They just focus on the here and now. The important thing is most the parts from the 1930's reels will fit the modern version of that same model. Trying to date a Penn reel is mostly guesswork. Some info online talks about the color of the knobs that relate to certain era's, but that's total bs. Some models had different looking logos, and some had different colors thru the years. Mike's history books really don't cover that aspect. You just hafta find reels still in original box and compare them to see the minor changes. I've had so many Penns go thru my hands, I can narrow down certain era of a Penn to a handful of years, but it would take me all month typing to explain what to look for. Some models are easier to date than others. Bottom line is the guts mostly all stayed the same no matter the era they were built