The Shakespeare 1969 --- looking inside a 50 year old baitcaster

Started by festus, May 08, 2019, 11:11:22 PM

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festus

This reel came in the mail this morning part of a lot of 9 assorted spincasters, spinners, and baitcasters.

Those reels averaged $4.75 shipped, I thought it was a deal.

I remember these reels, they debuted in 1969, I was the ripe old age of 16 back then.  In the 1969 Shakespeare catalog, they're priced at $60 retail.  These are one of the first low profiled reels I can remember, and as a bonus they also have a baitclicker.


Made in U.S.A., of course, felt a little weird using SAE tools again.  Handle nut is 9/16".








Opening the head plate reveals a new, unfamiliar world to me.......


......but not too complicated.


Whoever came up with the idea to take pictures when disassembling is a genius, no way I could remember without a camera.  ::)








Checking out the level wind assembly.




Time to remove pinion.






Clicker switch is working fine.


Actual clicker is in fine shape.


A little grit and dirt on both sides of the spool was cleaned out.




Removing level wind assembly for cleaning.


Ready for cleaning.


Assembly.
All side plate screws are the same.


Rebuilding the clean, newly lubricated level wind assembly.


Reinstalling the clutch lever.


Replacing and lubricating the pinion gear.


Using your imagination, the reassembly of the reel is the same as disassembly in reverse.


I mounted the reel on a 6-1/2' medium heavy Bass Pro Shop Bionic Blade.  There isn't much open land here, surrounded by woods, but I got about 55 yds on a cast with a 3/4 oz bank sinker.  Could have gotten much more if it wasn't for trees.


Shakespeare made some more models of these with more bling.  There is also a red-white-blue model made later.

I like 'em.  Makes me wonder why some of these modern low profile baitcasters aren't manufactured with bait clickers. They can be used for daytime b@$$ fishing with lures, and catfishing at night with live and cut baits.




mo65

Quote from: festus on May 08, 2019, 11:11:22 PM
I like 'em.  Makes me wonder why some of these modern low profile baitcasters aren't manufactured with bait clickers. They can be used for daytime b@$$ fishing with lures, and catfishing at night with live and cut baits.

   I've wondered that too. They should just put a clicker on everything. It should be like free spool and anti reverse...always available. Is that main gear nylon? Some other reels from that vintage have nylon mains. I wonder what the breaking point is?
~YOU CAN TUNA GEETAR...BUT YOU CAN'T TUNA FEESH~


festus

Quote from: mo65 on May 08, 2019, 11:29:02 PM
Quote from: festus on May 08, 2019, 11:11:22 PM
I like 'em.  Makes me wonder why some of these modern low profile baitcasters aren't manufactured with bait clickers. They can be used for daytime b@$$ fishing with lures, and catfishing at night with live and cut baits.

  I've wondered that too. They should just put a clicker on everything. It should be like free spool and anti reverse...always available. Is that main gear nylon? Some other reels from that vintage have nylon mains. I wonder what the breaking point is?
Yes, the gear is nylon, but it appears it has survived 50 years.  All the teeth looked fine.

Here's an ad.

Gfish

That's funny! A nylon main geared reel has "The guts to land a 100lb. fish"...
Fishing tackle is an art form and all fish caught on the right tackle are"Gfish"!

oc1

You mean to say that Shakespeare released the model 1969 in the year 1969?  Now why didn't they do that from the beginning instead of having obscure and confusing model numbers that looked like a date in the future.... like the model 1960 released in the early 1920's or the model 1926 released about 1951 or so.

What' the gear ratio on the model 1969 Chester?  It looks faster than most other reels of it's time; hence the elongated head plate.  

The nylon would have cut out a lot of weight.  A brass main gear that size would have weighed a ton.  I think they had already tried the nylon body spinning reel by that time and had put nylon gears in the model 1926.
-steve

Donnyboat

Nice work Festus, very interesting, the nylon main would run very quiet & smooth, I would think, thanks for showing us, cheers Don.
Don, or donnyboat

festus

Quote from: oc1 on May 09, 2019, 06:48:24 PM
You mean to say that Shakespeare released the model 1969 in the year 1969?  Now why didn't they do that from the beginning instead of having obscure and confusing model numbers that looked like a date in the future.... like the model 1960 released in the early 1920's or the model 1926 released about 1951 or so.

What' the gear ratio on the model 1969 Chester?  It looks faster than most other reels of it's time; hence the elongated head plate.  

The nylon would have cut out a lot of weight.  A brass main gear that size would have weighed a ton.  I think they had already tried the nylon body spinning reel by that time and had put nylon gears in the model 1926.
-steve
Steve, I can't find any specs on the gear ratio but it seems to be about 1:3.75 or better.

oc1

Steve, I can't find any specs on the gear ratio but it seems to be about 1:3.75 or better.
[/quote]
I saw that huge main gear and thought it must be really fast.  It's difficult to count from the photo but something around 80 to 85 teeth.  But looking again I see the pinion is also large, about 25 teeth.  The old 4:1 brass gear sets had about half as many pinion and main gear teeth.  Maybe the larger main gear puts less strain on the nylon.
-steve

festus

Quote from: oc1 on May 10, 2019, 08:53:20 AM

I saw that huge main gear and thought it must be really fast.  It's difficult to count from the photo but something around 80 to 85 teeth.  But looking again I see the pinion is also large, about 25 teeth.  The old 4:1 brass gear sets had about half as many pinion and main gear teeth.  Maybe the larger main gear puts less strain on the nylon.
-steve
Steve, I'm not that great at counting teeth, after 3 tries it averaged about 3.85/1 ratio. But it's obvious it isn't a full 4/1 ratio.

Yes, I have an old 1969 Shakespeare catalog and this is on page 15.

Steve, do you have any idea when the 1958 Shakespeare Triumph debuted?  I have one of those old knucklebusters somewhere.

This reel is quieter and reels smoother than a couple of low profile Shimano Bantams from the 1980s, and is as smooth as Abus.

There were some more colorful models made later with a higher gear ratio.

oc1

Quote from: festus on May 10, 2019, 02:32:10 PM
Steve, do you have any idea when the 1958 Shakespeare Triumph debuted?  I have one of those old knucklebusters somewhere.

Probably some time in the 1920's.  The only way I know to find out is to look at the date codes on a bunch of them.   There is one from 1926 for sale at the auction now.
-steve