grinding noises in penn senators

[alantani]

I just put A narrow tib frame and spool and new newell gears and yoke on a Penn 4/0h. After putting everything back together I get this grinding sound. Everything seems to work ok. Any ideas?  Thanks, Kenny 

it's not just the normal annoying noise of the newell gears, right?  didn't think so.  ok, you're going to have to do this stepwise.  tear it all down and let's build it up piece by piece.

first, take the bare frame, spool and side plates with the bearings.  put these together and center the spool by adjusting the left spool cap.  you want zero load and zero freeplay.  now see if the spool grinds when you spin it.  if it grinds here, recheck the bearings.  it could also be that the spool is rubbing against the inner metal rings of the side plates.  that probably means that the spool shaft is bent.  this is rare.  bet it spins pretty nicely, though, huh!  didn't think that was it.  let's move on. 

second. take the bare bridge and gear sleeve assembly and screw it into the right side plate.  no main gear, none of the other guts.  put everything together and spin the spool.  this is where many reels grind.  the spool is rubbing up against the bridge plate.  let's try to shim the right side plate bearing to shift the spool laterally to the left. newell makes washers for that purpose.  use any washer for now, and if this works we can get you the right washer.  you can also try to grind away a little bit of bridge plate material to see if the spool will clear.  let's not do this just yet. 

third.  hmmm, so you put the bridge plate in and it actually spun fine?  rebuild the right side plate and let's put the reel back together completely.  you know, it is entirely possible that just tearing it down again has gotten rid of the grinding.  this happens sometimes and i have no idea why.  welcome to my world.  but if the grinding is still a problem, then we have eliminated the spool as the cluprit.  the grinding is now somewhere between the handle grip and the pinion gear.  the main gear could be rubbing against the side plate or the main and pinion gears could be shredded.

these are the most common problems.  ok, kenny.  you're up!