Penn 210 teardown and refresh

[Lingwendil]

Hey there. Ever since joining this site and rebuilding several Penn 209 reels I've been hooked. The honorable xjchad sent me a Mag 10, and I love it. Shortly after I set out to try and get it's bigger brother- the Penn 210. I had my eye out on that auction site (you know the one ) but everything was in poor condition, too expensive, or had the older style spool, which meant that I would have to spend extra to replace it with the aluminum spool to make it easier to cast. I finally found one that looked to be in good shape, with the aluminum spool already in place, so I grabbed it. It came in and I was happy to see it seemed to be handled well and taken care of pretty well, and seemed to have been used very little. It felt very dry.

I haven't seen very many pictures of the internals of these posted before (but plenty of the similar Mag 10 and 209) so decided to post pictures as I tore it down and began cleaning it up.

Here's a link to my Google Drive folder of pictures, just in case the host ever goes down-
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=1OrGeCboxSkHFVw64bGcHVjRoXFRt5sdR

Get ready for several posts and lots of pics.










A welcome surprise is that the 210 comes stock with the 24-66 Jigmaster handle, which I really like





It's got a freshwater style stand, I'll be swapping it out with the salt style stand from my spare 209-












Continued in next post-

[Lingwendil]

First, make sure you have the right supplies and tools ready, this reel came apart pretty easy so a small flathead screwdriver and a Penn wrench is all it needed.



Pull the screws on the handle side of the reel perimeter, and lets pop her open. Little bit of staining from rust. Looks like it's mostly from the clicker ratchet gear, and on the click tongue itself. Set these parts aside, and continue to pull things apart.





Pull the handle screw (this one had the main screw a bit loose, with the lock screw also a bit loose) and pull the handle to get to the drag star. Take note of which part number you have- as there are two that your reel may have. This would be information you need if you order a stainless replacement gear sleeve. My reel takes the fine thread 98-505 gear sleeve and 10-505 drag star. These reels are also found with the coarse thread 10-60 star and 98-155 gear sleeve from my research.



Next I took a look at the levelwind assembly. It all looks nice and smooth, bright finish. No corrosion or scoring. Moves nice and smooth, if a little dirty on the pawl housing exterior.



Next I pull the rest of the screws holding the sideplate and bars together. The side ring just pops right off with gentle pressure under the edge from the inside of the ring.





Closer look at the stand. A little bit of surface fogging from dirt and corrosion. I'll clean it up a bit but not priority as it's getting swapped out.



Unscrew the clicker spring, and lets take a closer look at the click tongue. This one is retained with a circlip. On my 209 reels and Mag 10 they are peened on and would have to be drilled out. This will pry off gently with a small screwdriver.



Unscrew the levelwind nylon gear while you're here.







The bearing on this side simply screws out. Greasy and dirty, but rotates smoothly.



A quick wipe and it looks good as new.



Continued in next post-

[xjchad]

Great pictures and explanations Anthony!

Looking forward to the next installment!

[Lingwendil]

Now lets get to the handle side parts. Note that this bridge does not have a magnet installed. If anyone has pictures of the bridge for a Mag tuned 210 I'd love for you to share them



Pop out these four screws, and the bridge assembly should come out fairly easily. I do this bridge side down so that if any springs decide to run for the hills I can gently lower everything out.



Check out that nice, large main gear! Note that the grease is dark, and fairly stiff with an almost waxy consistency. Clearly in need of a clean and refresh.



Lets pull the lever for the clutch engagement next-



If you're gently the parts should just fall out between the sideplate and the bridge.





A nice surprise- bone dry (and clean!) HT-100 drags and stainless drag washers (checked with a magnet, very faint attraction to neodymium magnets, no attraction to a typical ferrite refrigerator magnet)



A look at the inside of the sideplate. You can see the bearing here, a little dirty, but freely spinning.



Simply flip it over, and push it out from the outside-









It wiped up nice and clean, just like the other one.



Now's a good time to put any nice, clean screws, washers, springs, etc. into a small bag in order not to lose anything.





The spacer is a little crusty, but it will clean up nicely with a little rub of a scothcbrite pad and oil. Be sure to carefully remove the dog and spring and put them somewhere safe at this time.



The fiber washer is even in great shape-



Use a small punch or a small screwdriver to knock the pin out retaining the gear sleeve, and slide it off.



A quick wipe reveals nice parts in very nice shape





Gear sleeve looks fantastic too-



Continued in next post-

[Lingwendil]

Main gear looks good, a little staining but no significant wear-





A quick wipe to show the condition better.



Now to deal with that rust.





A half hour soak in some white vinegar will loosen up and remove much of the rust, but not completely as it still has oil and grease in it.







While those soak, I wiped down the side rings, and they polished up pretty nicely with a clean cloth. Lots of little nicks and scratches, no worries for me on a reel to use for actual fishing.





All the clean small parts go in the bag, all the stubborn greasy parts go in a small jar of solvent (in this case, PB Blaster) to soak. I've done this when rebuilding old Bosch VW distributors and find it takes a lot of rubbing and manual cleaning work away for you.



After removing the level wind gear and circlip, a little work with a Q-tip to rub the rusty bits away, the vinegar did much of the work for us.



Much better!



Still some pitting, but the surfaces that contact the clicker ratchet are nice and smooth. A smear of grease for protection at reassembly should be plenty to keep it from getting any worse.





That's all for now. Left the really greasy parts to soak in PB blaster overnight and will tackle them again after work.



To be continued soon!

[thorhammer]

nice work....you may already know this, but simple way to flush bearings without pulling shield is to put in a jar with lighter fluid and shake every so often..i find a little pimento jar is perfect. gets out a lot of gunk overnight if you don't have a sonicator. I saw you are switching to an "S" stand....fyi, also an option, the new -66 stand is available in SS. very nice.

[Lingwendil]

I've got some camp fuel for my old Coleman liquid fuel camp stoves I can use, if I'm not mistaken it's basically naptha- same as lighter fluid. I'll dig out a jar and soak the bearings tonight when i get home.

[wfjord]

Really nice looking 210 and a very nice breakdown pictoral. Good work!

[Alto Mare]

Very nice clean job you did on that 210.
Thanks for all your hard work, these will come handy.

Sal

[mo65]

I love the 210...it's like a Jigmaster with a levelwind. These reels take well to modification too, my hot rodded 210 gets used a lot. Great job refreshing your reel!

[Crow]

Good job ! Thanks for posting !

[Lingwendil]

Too much going on tonight, hopefully I can get back to it tomorrow after work

[Gfish]

Great job! Excellent detail & pictures. Penn put alota stuff into these reels. Love the way that everything is removable, such as the click pawl and spring on the tail-plate. Perhaps an '80's thing for Penns. More!...

[Lingwendil]

Alright, a couple days further than expected, but here we go with the rest. Lets pop open that jar of parts.



That solvent (PB Blaster) is completely packed with crud and sediment. A couple days soak sure did a great job getting the gunk out.



Now we lay out all the parts on a doubled paper towel, and blot as much solvent off of them as we can. A gentle tap on the paper will get much off it out of screw holes and off of parts. The rest can be wiped clean by hand.



For gears and parts with through holes a rolled up piece of paper towel run through works well.



The pinion and main gear cleaned up very nicely. A little staining on the main, but nothing you can catch a fingernail on.







A toothbrush comes in handy to get any stubborn grease off of gear teeth, and is cheap. No fancy pantsy ultrasonic cleaner needed!



Now I carefully laid out the smaller clean and dry parts from the small bag on a clean paper towel.



Get the bridge, dog, dog spring, gear sleeve, and the retining pin together.



Make sure to oil the shaft when you install the sleeve.



Slide the sleeve on, and tap in the retaining pin. I found the handle of a screwdriver was plenty of force, and gently tapped it through.



Another drop of oil up top, and a quick spin by hand to ensure it rotates smoothly...



Next we place the dog and spring in postition, and add a drop of oil. I really like the way the spring is done on the 210 (and the Mag 10) as the spring and dog stay together during assembly- on the 209 the dog uses one of the bridge screws as a pivot and can be tricky to install.



Next, smear a bit of Cal's grease on the top of the ratchet of the gear sleeve, and slide the fiber washer into place (or carbon, or delrin, depending on what you are using)



Shove the washer down, and then apply grease on top.



Then press the main gear down on top of the fiber washer, open side up. I somehow missed a picture of the next part, but apply grease to the drag washer, and slide it down the sleeve and into the main gear.



Next grease both sides of a keyed steel washer (without the ears/tabs on the outside edges) and slide it down the sleeve.



Next comes the eared washer, note that the hole is round, not keyed-



Again with the grease-



Push it down so that the ears line up with the slots in the main gear, and seat the washer all the way down.



Next slide down another drag washer.



Grease the final steel washer, and push it down on top of the drag washer.



Next, slide down the bellevue/wavy washer.



Next do the spacer sleeve, I greased it inside and out.



Next, holding the anti-reverse still with one hand, I screwed on the star drag wheel just to ensure everything worked smoothly without binding, and then removed it again. All good so far!



Next I applied a bit more grease over the sleeve end, just to be safe.



Then I applied grease to each tooth on the gear with a toothpick. It sounds tedious, but it only took a couple minutes.



Continued in next post-

[mike1010]

Nice reel and a nice job.