Checking free spool time on Curado

[RAM3]

I have seen that some of you guys check the free spool time on baitcast reels before you work on them to see what kind of inprovements you get after you have worked on them. How exactly do you do that? Do you take the spool out of the reel or do you spin it while it is in the reel? Also do you test it with the line on or do you take all the line off first? Thanks.

[alantani]

i just give it a quick spin before i service the reel, then a quick spin afterwards.  with such a small spool, you're not going to get alot of spin time. 

[kamuwela]

 leave the line on, back off the drag place the reel on the bench use your thumb's and give it a good spin. grab a beer and a watch sit back and check how many seconds it spin's. repeat procedure as needed just dont be driving. then follow alans tutoriol's and youll be fine, just grab the beer after your done lol.                           good luck and welcome to alan's world
                                                          aloha
                                                          kamu                                                    

[RAM3]

I tore down the used 200BSF Curado I bought last night and cleaned it. Before the tear down I had a free spin of 4 seconds. It was pretty gunked up and it took me about 2 hours to clean it and reassemble it. This is the first Curado I have ever torn down so I tried to yake my time. After I put it back together I got 4 seconds of spin out of it again. The reel is clean now but I was expecting to see some kind of inprovement on the spin time does this seem like an acceptable spin time? I didn't even have time to pop the top of my beer. Thanks.

[kamuwela]

what are you using for lube on the spool bearings? grease wil cut down on free spool time. you can polish the pinion shaftremove bearing shields and lube with corrosion x or hot sauce.

[RAM3]

I cleaned the bearings in lighter fluid a few times until it stayed clear and the dryed the bearings and applied 1 drop of rocket fuel on then. I cleaned my bearings on my Abu Garcia reel and they are spinning for 70 seconds up from 30 when I started. 4 seconds for a Curado BSF that is suppose to be a super caster seems awful low. I did get alot of rust colored lighter fluid out of them (2 times) before it cleared up. I put the on the end of a pencil and they seem to spin smooth but not very long. Thanks for any advice.

Ramon

[alantani]

it's binding somewhere.  if the bearings are cleaned and lubed, that leaves just the pinion gear.......

[RAM3]

Can the bearings be opened up to see what they look like inside. When I put them on the end of a pencil and spin them they seem smooth but spin for about 4 or 5 seconds. I put some polishing compound on a qtip and cleaned out the pinion gear befor I put it back on. The qtip was black the first 2 times but it stayed clean after the third time. Do you still think I could have problems with the pinion gear? I thing I forgot to add is that the bearing behind the pionion gear was stuck with a littlel rust. I had to soak it a few times and then put a match in the center and was finally able to turn it and free it up. This was the only bearing that I found that would not turn at all when I first tore it do. Thanks for the help.

Ramon   

[Norcal Pescador]

Even the smallest amount of rust in a bearing is too much. As hard as you worked on cleaning the bearing, the removed rust leaves behind pits and raised areas that'll slow down your bearings pronto. Bottom line is it's time for a new bearing. 

Good luck, Ramon! 

Rob

[RAM3]

OK i will take it from there and let you guys know when I do it and what the results are. Thanks for all your help.

Ramon

[RAM3]

I looked up the part number for the bearing that was rusted and it is the same number as the bearing that is installed on the other side. The one that rusted had no shield on it, I can see the bearings inside but the other one is protected. How can they be the same part number and one is open and the other one is shielded?

Ramon 

[kamuwela]

the shields must have been removed previously. sounds like you have a bunch of bad bearings. any rust is not a good sign. for casting we recomend open bearings with corrosion x or similar product. frequent service is recomended to prevent this from happening again. when we run open bearings we take reels apart and relube bearings usually after each use on casting reels. if you are not into frequent service then grease the new bearings and replace the shields
                                                                     aloha   
                                                                     kamu               

[RAM3]

When you say grease are you talking about packing them full like some of the examples on this board. If I do that then the casting would not be worth a darn on this curado correct. Thanks.

Ramon

[Bryan Young]

Yes, greased bearings will slow down the reel. 

If you keep the lubed bearings open, water can escape and will the allow the bearing to dry out.  Use a good lubricant, but depending on the lubricant's corrosion resistant properties may require you to lube more often than other.

[RAM3]

Thanks, I will let you know how it turns out in a couple of days. I am going to replace the bearings and drag system. I got some base line distances yesterday to see if I can see the difference when I change the bearings that had rust in them out.

Ramon