SHIMANO TRANX 500HG

[Cor]

A week ago while retrieving a lure the Pawl Cap BNT3595 suddenly broke with a sharp crack.    Pawl and spacer dropped out and were lost.

Mid Feb this year I had replaced the Pawl, Worm gear and shimmed the whole Level winding mechanism to remove play so the parts were mostly new, but have worked a lot since February.

I replaced the Pawl Cap, spacer and Pawl and used the reel on three days when precisely the same thing happened again yesterday.    This has prompted some further investigation and this morning I dismantled the whole reel and examined all the parts with a magnifier.   

On the enclosed photo you can see damage to the worm gear on the left of the picture.   It looks as if the pawl tried to climb up the centre of the triangular section on the worm and left a deep scar and protrusion.    The worm gear also shows a fair amount of wear which is not unusual as they seem to last about 6 month for me.

The picture also shows the broken Pawl Cap still in place.

I clean and lubricate the worm gear weekly with Corrosion X.

QUESTIONS
1.   Has anyone seen this type of damage before, and
2.   Any Ideas what could have caused it?
3.   I can not detect unusual wear on the plastic Line Guide BNT4461 but perhaps its on the inside where the pawl moves against the plastic?


Any information will be appreciated.

[exp2000]

This is very typical of a damaged worm drive.

A micro-boulder lodges in the worm groove and once the pawl reaches the bitter end, it has nowhere to go but up and over gouging metal in it's wake.

However, the popped pawl cap is unusual. Guess that it is made from relatively weak alloy which fractures under the pressure exerted by the pawl when it climbs out of the groove.

What to do about it? Prevention: inspect the worm after each trip and keep that groove clean.

A quick squirt of high discharge aerosol break cleaner aimed at the pawl tongue will blast away any gravel buildup hiding in there.

I think that there are better choices of lubricants for this application:  While CX is a good corrosion inhibitor, it does not exhibit very good lubricity characteristics which is why it's so good for Roller Clutch bearings.

An oil such as Protecta Lube might be a better choice in this situation but for larger boat reel worm gears, I do brush on a smear of light grease such as ACE-2.

Hope this helps some.
~

[Donnyboat]

Thanks for keeping us up to date Brett, all good info, cheers Don.

[nelz]

Wow, that's unbelievable. I imagine you must be cranking fast and hard to exert that kind of pressure on the cap. Are you doing vertical jigging with heavy lures? Never seen such a thing!

[Cor]

I use 3 of these reels for jigging Irons and surface plugs of about 2 &1/2 oz to 3 & 1/2 oz in fairly strong seas, so yes these reels work very hard with constant casting and retrieving.

That cap is made of plastic so that explains why it popped like that, and the damage to the worm must have happened the first time.

The worm gear is the weak part of these reels and needs constant attention and service.

The lesson learned is not to just replace the part without attempting to find the fault first.    This of course happens because it is such a pain in the B..... to dismantle the whole reel to get to the worm gear.    It may have been possible to detect the problem with more careful examination without dismantling.

When I first started using these reels I used Teflon grease on the worm gear, but I had more wear as more stuff was sticking to it and it is hard to clean off.    I use the reels mostly for shore fishing and walk and climb to get to my fishing spots so pick up much dust.

[nelz]

These reels do not have synchronized level-winds, is that correct?

[Gfish]

Sorry for thread tangent. Hay nelz, nice mahi in your avatar. Is there a story behind it? If inclined to, maybe you could post in the photo gallery or somethin.

[nelz]

Sorry for thread tangent. Hay nelz, nice mahi in your avatar. Is there a story behind it? If inclined to, maybe you could post in the photo gallery or somethin.

Thanks man. This fish came from the opposite side of the globe from you though, off the Florida coast.

[Cor]

These reels do not have synchronized level-winds, is that correct?

No they disengage!    Casts much better, but may bring different issues.    I've had some big fish on mine without problems but can see that it sure may break sometime!

[nelz]

These reels do not have synchronized level-winds, is that correct?

No they disengage!    Casts much better, but may bring different issues.    I've had some big fish on mine without problems but can see that it sure may break sometime!

Yeah, big fish + big lures/weights + disengaging LW made of plastic parts = FAIL. IMHO disengaging LW should be limited to fresh-water use or light SW. The extreme side angle pressure the line guide is subjected to can cause the pawl & worm to eventually jam and you've seen the result!

I just don't get how Shimano & Daiwa can market their Tranx & Lexa reels for such heavy duty use.

[thorhammer]

Cor you my hero. Not for the reel evaluation, but because you actually get to fish enough to wear out something

I have an embarrassing amount of gear still waiting to touch water after a long time....

[Cor]

These reels do not have synchronized level-winds, is that correct?

No they disengage!    Casts much better, but may bring different issues.    I've had some big fish on mine without problems but can see that it sure may break sometime!

Yeah, big fish + big lures/weights + disengaging LW made of plastic parts = FAIL. IMHO disengaging LW should be limited to fresh-water use or light SW. The extreme side angle pressure the line guide is subjected to can cause the pawl & worm to eventually jam and you've seen the result!

I just don't get how Shimano & Daiwa can market their Tranx & Lexa reels for such heavy duty use.

I need to defend Shimano in this case.    I have 3 of these reels, the oldest one going for 4 years and that is the one I use most often.    I no longer fish as much as I used to, but will make a quick guess.    In summer 3 to 4 days per week and then spend about 3 hours casting and retrieving, that is 10.5 hours at 100 casts per hour 1050, 85 yds casts per week.
I do this for 5 month per year, you can work out the rest.    (In the past I used to do double that amount of casting)

This reel caught one 70lb Yellowfin tuna, some smaler Bonnies, Skippies and maybe 250 Yellowtail.

I have replaced the following parts on the reel during this period:-
Drive shaft bearing twice, the current one has lasted a long time.
Both spool bearings, but that may not really have been necessary, but I like those 110%
Left side pinion bearing
One anti reverse pawl
Belleville washers
Pawl cap and now trying to source another one.

I replace the worm shaft yearly
and the pawl every 3 months.

Others may not have replaced all the parts I have, but I like my reels to be mechanically sound and fairly smooth.

About 2 times the Level winding system packed up while fishing.

Maybe I am wrong but I think it is pretty acceptable service from a reel like that and they have helped me to fish much more then I would have been able to do with my older heavier equipment.

Cor you my hero. Not for the reel evaluation, but because you actually get to fish enough to wear out something

I have an embarrassing amount of gear still waiting to touch water after a long time....

Not justified    Before these reels I used Diawa SL50SH reels for this purpose and still maintain they are better for this type of fishing.   Excellent work horses!   But those days I used to fish so much that the clutch lever, which fits in to the graphite frame without any kind of bushing, became so worn out and oval that the clutch lever would eventually not operate any longer and the springs just kept on breaking.    Now that was worn out!!

[alantani]

i should add this here as well.  don't use an albright knot to connect mono or fluoro to your braid.  the tag end sticks out and will catch on the ceramic insert, then the braid will literally saw through the soft graphite or plastic that is left.  you have to use a tony pena for a connection.  it is particularly important because the leveler does not move with the spool, it moves with the handle.  on a hard run, the leveler and it's ceramic insert are stationary, while the line peels out back and forth on the spool. 

[Cor]

Thanks Allan.   I use braid on the reels and a very short leader of only 75 cm to keep it outside my guides.    Often don't even use a leader as my topshot is 20 mt 80lb braid, that is way strong enough.

I have been wondering what caused the mark(s) there are 2 line cuts on the other side of the line guide so you can't see them.   I'll go and take a photo, perhaps it happened when I held a tuna and the spool line was very low.

Photo added!  I notice the guide actually has quite a lot of line cuts!

[Lunker Larry]

What I've found happens sometimes is you get a build up of fluff, dirt or line fibre at the end of the worm gear shield preventing the line guide from completing its track. Of course as you crank the pawl wants to keep going and ends up jumping the track, bending the tips of the worm gear and scoring the gear.
I use Bell bicycle chain lube for worm gears. It is a synthetic teflon product and lasts a long time. If a bike chain can't throw it it will stay on a worm gear.