Daiwa Lexa 400HS-P: Service Tutorial and Maintenance Tips

[johndtuttle]

Sorry, I am novice when it comes to working on reels but I want to check out the gears on
my lexas and grease them.   To access  ... is it necessary to take off the handle first.
Or will unscrewing the 3 screws work.

The handle bits are very easy to remove if you have a Daiwa or Penn wrench for the handle nut. Otherwise you can try wrapping it in a towel and using pliers to avoid scratching it (which will promote corrosion).

All the rest just lifts off. Carefully set them down in order and the plate will lift off. Nothing hard at all. 

Thanks, I found a lexa takeapart on youtube.  On another thread, someone was talking about putting vaseline in the reel...is that a option to keep saltwater out??

No, you can use any Marine Bearing Grease you want, but you want the anti-salt additives that it has to better protect your reel. It will protect it longer.

[maxpowers]

John,

Do you remembered if the handle had a bit of vertical play in it?  What I meant is if you remembered if the handle pulled out a couple of mm of play.  My 400 developed this recently and when I took it apart, the black plastic gear that is held in place by the E-clip has a bit of play in it. 

[johndtuttle]

John,

Do you remembered if the handle had a bit of vertical play in it?  What I meant is if you remembered if the handle pulled out a couple of mm of play.  My 400 developed this recently and when I took it apart, the black plastic gear that is held in place by the E-clip has a bit of play in it. 

The handle normally has some axial play as the drive shaft moves in and out. This can cause some play in the black idle gear. However, I have not heard of this causing trouble. Under load generally there isn't play and it is of small concern, generally.

Overall the reel offers an amazingly capable package for the coin, but part of that lightweight character and resulting compromises mean such tolerance issues have to be accepted.

Its truly a dilemma...if the reel was tanked up a bit then even though it would be tougher people would probably complain about the weight and cost and that would hurt sales. "Performance for the weight and cost" versus "what the market will pay for" are competing here for hearts and minds.

[maxpowers]

John,

Do you remembered if the handle had a bit of vertical play in it?  What I meant is if you remembered if the handle pulled out a couple of mm of play.  My 400 developed this recently and when I took it apart, the black plastic gear that is held in place by the E-clip has a bit of play in it. 

The handle normally has some axial play as the drive shaft moves in and out. This can cause some play in the black idle gear. However, I have not heard of this causing trouble. Under load generally there isn't play and it is of small concern, generally.

Overall the reel offers an amazingly capable package for the coin, but part of that lightweight character and resulting compromises mean such tolerance issues have to be accepted.

Its truly a dilemma...if the reel was tanked up a bit then even though it would be tougher people would probably complain about the weight and cost and that would hurt sales. "Performance for the weight and cost" versus "what the market will pay for" are competing here for hearts and minds.

Thanks John.  I added some grease to the sump area and it helped a bit.

[rusn007]

Thanks for a great tutorial writeup! 

I recently picked up a newer version of the Lexa 400... looks like a solid reel and can't wait to put it to a test.

I wad debating between Tranx and Lexa - my buddy who had Lexa and landed some 40#+ fish convinced me to get it (cheaper in price also helped).

[maxpowers]

My well abused Lexa 400 worm shaft gave out again.  This is the second time it had failed within the last 3 years, although I do used it quite a bit, 80% of my fishing time.  Daiwa quoted $8 for the worm shaft but is out of stock for who knows when.  I decided to just remove the black line feeder thingie and will fish it non line wind for a while until the part is back in stock with daiwa.  I’ll report back on how it fished without the linewinder feature.

[maxpowers]

It was ok using the reel without the levelwind but every once in awhile I forgot that the reel is not levelwind and the line bunches up a bit but it’s not too bad.  It’s definitely better than having a screwy levelwind and you can’t even manually levelwind.

[spize909]

It was ok using the reel without the levelwind but every once in awhile I forgot that the reel is not levelwind and the line bunches up a bit but it’s not too bad.  It’s definitely better than having a screwy levelwind and you can’t even manually levelwind.

Mike did it free spool better? I fished mine quite  bit on my last charter and kind of really noticed that the free spool was not quite where I needed it to fish bait. I attribute some of it to the line guide on the worm gear and also probably the fact that I haven't torn it completely down to wipe out or add or change grease/oil since I bought it (fished very little).