Reel Repair by Alan Tani

I am refurbishing a shimano spheros spinner I bought on ebay for a deal. Although I'm dealing with a spinner, I feel this question is applicable to all reel maintenance.

If I replace one gear inside a reel, should I also replace all others at the same time to ensure a consistent fit?

Here's the story. I had to replace a brass pinion gear because the threads for the rotor nut were busted. I put in the new pinion, applied some Yamaha grease, and put the thing back together. Now I hear clicking when I wind the handle. Should I have replaced all gears in the reel at the same time? Is it bad to have a new gear mesh up to an older used gear??  I'm suspecting that the clicking is coming from some misalignment between the brand new brass pinion and the used alloy main gear. I've tried a couple combinations of spacers on the main gear sleeve to reduce friction, none seem to reduce the sound any further.

you need to replace the damaged gears in sets. So if your main gear is damaged, you should also replace the pinion, but not necessarily the level wind gear.   If the level wind gear is damaged, you should replace the level wind gear and the main gear.  I hope this makes sense.

Yes, Captain --

Bryan is of course right.

Whenever possible -- both the pinion and main gears should be replaced as a set.

In the case of a brass pinion up against a softer alloy main -- when the main is unavailable as new -- I will run the new brass pinion over my wire wheel grinder -- in all directions -- particularly in the same direction as the pinion teeth, so as to prevent a tiny "over-cupping edge" -- until it seems as close as possible to the wear pattern history on the main.  Use a fine touch with the wire wheel grinder -- and variable speed helps a lot to slow down the process.

Check the main for any damage -- could be tiny or even not visible to the naked eye -- very slow and fine wire brush at this point, also.

Keep reinstalling the two and testing them with no grease -- just to get as smooth a close fit as possible by feel and ear.

When I am satisfied they are as close as possible, and operating well -- they get recleaned together -- greased with Yamaha -- reinstalled for the last time.  Should be as good as possible at that point.

Best,

Fred

Thanks guys. For what it's worth, the actual pinion gear was not damaged. I had to replace it because the threads on the attached gear sleeve that hold the rotor nut had been stripped. In any case, it sounds like it's still necessary to replace the main gear. I'll leave the level wind gear alone, since I don't hear any clicking between that gear and the pinion.


Next question- is it possible to insert palladium gears from a saragosa 14000 into a spheros 14000fb? Is the part the same size and shape as it's alloy counterpart, and thus ideal for a transplant?? Haven't seen this done on any of a myriad of fishing forums, so I'm not sure it's possible, but I'm willing to try.

No idea  - I just listen to the experts here


BTW - nice screen name