Reel Repair by Alan Tani

Great post.
Sal was a very talented man.

I was fishing with a Luxor300/Harnell setup that I inherited from an old time friend.  I unintentionally dunked it yesterday and am breaking it down and cleaning it out today.  The fiber washer under the rotor is in bad shape.  Has anyone made a replacement for the fiber washer? Even though I didn't catch anything it was a good feeling using his old setup.  Thanks

I know this is a year later. But a less involved drag upgrade I do is replace the soft washer with a Penn 704 ht100,old fiber or even older leather soft washer. Keep the metal keyed washer up top. And under the spool I use the Teflon 704 drag washer. Much better than the original set up. Not as great as modifying to have several like earlier posts.

This post is an interesting and revealing aspect of how folks look at spinning reels today.

For many of us in our small Alan Tani group of die-hard folks that know and appreciate the quality of some of these top quality vintage large spinners —- we understand.

For others (most of the angling world) they are only impressed by the marketing guys who write the flowery engineering descriptions of mostly plastic spinning reels with 13 bearings.  And they are used to disposing and replacing their reels every few seasons.

These HD surf saltwater reels were considered the highest quality in their day for anglers that could afford the best.

I have a couple of these as a matched set, new, never used, in perfect boxes with all paperwork and spare spools, and original receipts.

Hard to get anyone to even look at them —- let alone to consider purchasing them.

And they buy everything online —- plastic buying plastic...

It is a different world —- plastic, Tupperware, disposable products that are like shiny baubles to a kid —- are what attracts today's anglers.

The fish haven't changed in 2 million years, but the anglers sure have.

High quality reels —- thanks for sharing!

Best, Fred

Super interesting thread.

This site is a never ending source of new projects to sprout up in my ADHD head. 

Here are a pair of the Luxor 300's, which is the same as the Cracks.

Brand new in boxes, all paperwork, 2 spare bails, (1) spare spool, loaded with line at a tackle shop probably 70 years ago.  Never rod mounted or fished.

Was asking $350 for the pair.

Will offer for $200 both reels to a member this weekend.

Best, Fred