Pflueger Pelican 1020 spinning reel

Started by Alto Mare, October 11, 2014, 02:31:06 AM

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Alto Mare

A little while back we were having a discussion about spinners that retrieve line without the oscillating system and Fred mentioned the Pflueger 1020. From looking at his pics, I mentioned that I was going to purchase one of those for myself, so I could take a closer look. Fred beat me to it, he already had one in the mail by then. ;D
Thanks again Fred, I appreciate it.
Here are a couple of shots of the reel:

removing the spool, I noticed no drag washers anywhere :-\

there had to be drags somewhere, the reel was working just fine, so I decided to take a closer look

I don't have any parts list, I wonder if the main gear is delrin, Fred could educate us on this reel,we'll see what he thinks



removing the plate at the back of the reel, reveals an interesting design with the drag

the thumb screw is attached to a coiled spring that gets tight or lose as you turn it.

This reel is probably 50 to 60 years old, maybe more, these guys were way ahead of us, I wonder why they gave up the design. :-\
interesting reel.
Sal
Forget about all the reasons why something may not work. You only need to find one good reason why it will.

foakes

Around 1953, Pfueger was scrambling for a way to get into the spinning reel business.  They had been very successful with their other conventional and fly reels -- but it looked like spinning reels we're going to take a big chunk of the market -- and their sales were flat or decreasing -- while Mitchell, Record, Alcedo, DAM Quick, Shakespeare, and others were increasing their market share.

If the reel was either a little smaller size -- or larger for salt water -- it may have had a better chance.  As it was, instead of trying for a base hit to get on base -- they went for a home run with a very unique design. 

Basically, was a case of bad timing during an era of solid competition -- along with a company already floundering financially.

Quoted by Dr. Todd Larson --

Dr. Todd says:

"The Pflueger Pelican was Enterprise Manufacturing Co.'s belated attempt to enter the spinning reel market. Designed in the early 1950s by Tom Sarah, Pflueger's lead reel engineer (and certified reel genius with 40+ patents), internal strife delayed the Pelican's launch for nearly two years. When it reached the American angler in 1955, the market had changed. Part of the problem was its look; while European firms were manufacturing reliable and aesthetic models, the Pflueger Pelican looked...well, about as graceful as a pelican about to land. That doesn't mean it didn't work--it's a fine utilitarian reel--but when compared to the graceful lines of a Record or Mitchell, it lost out. It's also a large reel for freshwater, but too small for saltwater, that came out at a time when ultralights like the Alcedo were becoming all the rage. It was not the hit that Enterprise needed, and Pflueger's failure to develop a viable spinning reel led to their eventual decline and sale to Shakespeare in 1966. Your Pelican is worth $10-$20 in used condition, and twice that much (or more) in the box. For a picture of the 1953 Pelican patent, and a new in the box model, click here."

Best,

Fred
The Official, Un-Authorized Service and Restoration Center for quality vintage spinning reels.

D-A-M Quick, Penn, Mitchell, and ABU/Zebco Cardinals

--------

The first rule of fishing is to fish where the fish are. The second rule of fishing is to never forget the first rule.

"Enjoy the little things in Life — For someday, you may look back — and realize that they were the big things"
                                                     Fred O.

Alto Mare

As I said above, Fred would know ;D.

Thanks Fred, always very informative ;).


Sal
Forget about all the reasons why something may not work. You only need to find one good reason why it will.

cwillis85

Fred you need to start a weekly education segment. This type of information is not available anywhere else. Keep the knowledge coming. Out of curiosity,  how does that reel work, is it as simple as it looks or does it have a less obvious unique way of operating?
Chris

foakes

This reel is similar to an idea that Sal had a few weeks ago --

What makes it unique:

The spool shaft remains in place -- it does not move up and down like most other open face spinning reels.

This allows for a dead simple adjustable drag at the rear of the body housing --

And the last main thing is the action of the rotating head -- the rotor housing goes up and down to facilitate the line lay -- instead of the spool going up and down.

Best,

Fred
The Official, Un-Authorized Service and Restoration Center for quality vintage spinning reels.

D-A-M Quick, Penn, Mitchell, and ABU/Zebco Cardinals

--------

The first rule of fishing is to fish where the fish are. The second rule of fishing is to never forget the first rule.

"Enjoy the little things in Life — For someday, you may look back — and realize that they were the big things"
                                                     Fred O.

Cubby1973

These are very neat looking reels. I recently got one of these in a lot that included a shakespeare 2052 and a Dam quick 221. I took it down cleaned and lubed, but it was still not smooth at all, it works as it should just not smooth. Not sure if it's the plastic bearing or what. May look into it again someday, but for now it's just a quirky show piece.

Thanks
Jeff

Christopher M Songer

My brother got a small rolling tool box for the belt sander in the bottom. Underneath was the Pelican. Here it is, so happy to have some info on this one. Goin to finish taking apart the drag and put it back together. Any source for a bail spring appreciated. To be honest I have not looked yet as I just took it down this morning. Not even finished with the tear down yet.
Always go forward, never go straight

mo65

   John(Thorhammer) sent me one of these Pelicans, said he wanted to see it cleaner the next time he saw it. John likes to give a guy a challenge...so I'll try to measure up.
   As the first pic demonstrates, she's a little crusty. I'll try to cover some different parts of the teardown than the other folks have shown here. These are a very different beast than most spinning reels, and without a schematic, I'm just guessing about the correct parts nomenclature.




   John says he's not responsible for the classy handle pin here. ;D



   Popping off the side plate leaves one scratching his head. Why would anyone put so much design into a reel and cap it off with a nylon drive gear? Every other part is rock solid steel or bronze...it makes no sense. It's almost like someone said "This thing has to be $5 less to sell successfully." Then one of the egg heads says "No problem...we'll make that big gear plastic!" :'(  The anti-reverse(circled in yellow) is like a Quick design, and would be fantastic if the gear was metal, but where it contacts the gear(red arrow) there is considerable wear.



   With that gear out of the way you can see the rest of the design is great...all very strong materials. The rotor nut wins "largest rotor nut in the world" honors, coming in at a whopping 5/8 of an inch!



   To remove the rest of the parts you'll need to back out this axle retainer first.



   Next, remove wire keeper(green arrow) and unscrew the axle sleeve and related parts.



   Now everything but the pinion is disassembled.



   Same story on the pinion removal...another retainer to back out.



   What a gargantuan pinion! It's splined onto the axle sleeve, and has huge teeth, a very solid piece.



   Ready to slap back together...where did I put that model car glue? :D



   Thanks for a very cool reel John. These things march to their own drums for sure...it will make a nice addition to my collection. 8)

~YOU CAN TUNA GEETAR...BUT YOU CAN'T TUNA FEESH~


foakes

Good job, Mike --

Those Pelican's are not easy to work on -- and if you break a part during disassembly -- its all over.

Best, Fred
The Official, Un-Authorized Service and Restoration Center for quality vintage spinning reels.

D-A-M Quick, Penn, Mitchell, and ABU/Zebco Cardinals

--------

The first rule of fishing is to fish where the fish are. The second rule of fishing is to never forget the first rule.

"Enjoy the little things in Life — For someday, you may look back — and realize that they were the big things"
                                                     Fred O.

Midway Tommy

The Pelican was Pflueger's first spinning reel. It came out in 1954 but didn't show up in their catalog until '55. The expanded use of thermoplastics was really coming into its own after WWII. A lot of companies were beginning to use it as gearing and reel manufacturers jumped on board in the early to mid '50s, too. It was easier to manufacture, cheaper and quieter than metal. Funny thing, we, as older reel enthusiasts, tend to criticize the use of it in fishing reels but nylon gearing is used everywhere in our society today, including in automobiles, etc.  ::) I often wonder if the use of nylon in gearing in fishing reels was due to lack longevity knowledge or the beginning of limited life manufacturing.  ;)

One of the most interesting things about the Pflueger Pelican is that it truly is a fixed spool reel. The spool stays stationary while the rotor & bail oscillate.         
Love those open face spinning reels! (Especially ABU & ABU/Zebco Cardinals)

Tommy D (ORCA), NE



Favorite Activity? ............... In our boat fishing
RELAXING w/ MY BEST FRIEND (My wife Bonnie)

oldmanjoe

 Nice to see one of these pop up .  I have one laying around .   One thing i could not figure out is what this is or did on the spool ?
Grandpa`s words of wisdom......Joey that thing between your shoulders is not a hat rack.....    use it.....
A mind is like a parachute, it only work`s  when it is open.......
The power of Observation   , It`s all about the Details ..
 Forget about all the reasons why something may not work. You only need to find one good reason why it will.   Alto Mare

Crow

There's nothing wrong with a few "F's" on your record....Food, Fun, Flowers, Fishing, Friends, and Fun....to name just a few !

thorhammer

Shows I did the right thing sending to Mike. I would've tossed if I knew it had nylon gears but he did his great work on it, and it looks great!

steelfish

#13
hey Guys, let me join to the owners of a Pflueger Pelican 1020 reels

just found this one on a local flea market, I paid $5 dlls for it, its feels good, spins freely and its not in a bad ugly shape, just some nicks and missing paint here and there other than that is a nice piece of history.

I grabbed it because the singular shape, never though it had that singular mechanism of the fixed spool, thats pretty cool, too bad any replacement part is unobtanium

mine is missing a little piece of the tip reel foot  :-\

PS: I had hard time finding the drag adjustment on this reel, but I was pretty sure I would find it on at.com and found this thread my our frien Sal.
The Baja Guy

Gfish

#14
First time I've seen this thread. A very interesting design. I's surprised that nobody mentioned the plastic/nylon gear, until Mo's excellent break-down of it:"... makes no sense..." Agreed, it doesn't go along with all the sturdy looking engineering. I had a Pflueger Sea Star that was a little more traditionally built, but it had a plastic spindle on the spool shaft that cracked...
It is kinda "Pelican" lookin.
Fishing tackle is an art form and all fish caught on the right tackle are"Gfish"!