Dam Quick 2001

[Midway Tommy]

I was gifted this 2001 by a friend 5 or 6 years ago because he is wrong handed   and, although they are reversible, they require, and came with, separate right and left hand oscillation arms. The extra usually gets lost and he couldn't find a right hand crank arm so he gave it to me. It had a broken crank handle at some point. The person that had it replaced the handle with a chrome 220 handle and, although it worked, the handle wouldn't stay in the appropriate cranking position. It would flip over when cranking. These '01 series' came with a spring loaded snap over handle and somewhere along the line the chrome friction insert got lost, too. The bushing & spring were still there, though. The inserts, and full replacement handles, are near impossible to find. I planned on making my own insert from scratch and drill/dremel a recess area in the 220 crank. After a lot of procrastinating and constant looking, luckily, Fred came across a whole lot of late '70s /early '80s version impossible to find parts and saved me a bunch of time consuming and tedious work. THANK YOU, Fred, for allowing me to end up with a NOS replacement! Sometimes it pays to procrastinate.    Also, thanks for the tip on removing the High Speed sticker, it worked out well!  

The reel was in decent condition when I got it. It hadn't been cleaned in a long time, if ever, and the rotor must have been laid in salty water for awhile without cleaning because the bail/rotor counterweight had a lot of pitting. Most know I'm not fond of repainting reels or parts but this reel looked nice overall except for some crusty grunge and that pitted counterbalance, so I sanded it down, primed it with filler primer to fill the pits, sanded it, and repainted and clear coated the part. It turned out looking just fine!

Here you can see the decal removed and how pitted the counterbalance was.



There was a lot of old hard gross grease in this thing. I had already scraped a bunch out before I took the photo.



I didn't need a press to remove the bearing from the pinion worm gear. It came off with a light hammer tap. There's a lot of old nasty grease there, though.



After scraping off as much grease as I can during disassembly I did my usual process of soaking all unpainted metal parts in lacquer thinner for a couple of days and cleaning all the painted and plastic parts with Original White Goop and a warm water Dawn wash. All the thinner soaked parts get wire brushed and/or burnished upon removal from the thinner jar. Here are all the cleaned parts ready for reassembly. There are a lot of them. It has been awhile since I cleaned my 1001 and I forgot what a tedious process full reassembly of these '01 series' is.  

 

I started with the spool on this one rather than the rotor and bail assembly. The spool click pawl is plastic and held in place with a friction pin.



Here those parts are installed.



Next I installed the drag washers & spool release spindle. The spool center has a nylon sleeve, which is original, inserted. It originally came with a felt washer on top of the spindle and a felt washer and SS metal washer under the drag knob. Their large diameter produces a lot of friction surface. There was adequate room in the recess so I added a nylon washer under the felt washer. I oiled & greased the felt washers and they work just fine.



The anti-reverse mechanism is pretty straight forward. The external lever is retained by a U clip on the inside that pivots against a wire to retain tension. The anti-reverse dog/lever attaches to the U clip with a spring and pivots on a post molded into the body. The pinion worm gear has linear teeth in front of the spiral grooves and the dog locks against those linear teeth when engaged. That setup is one of the more efficient anti-reverse designs and similar to those on the ABU Cardinals.



Now I installed the pinion worm gear and bearing. I soaked the bearing in thinner with the other parts. It cleanup nicely and spins freely so I gave it a couple of squirts of synthetic oil, let it form a film and then packed it with Super Lube. All the main lubrication, except for the bail spring and line roller, was done with light synthetic oil and/or Super Lube. The bearing is unshielded but it has a dirt protecting washer on the rotor side. There's a wavy spring washer between it and the snap ring. Here you can also see the installed anti-reverse mechanism. The pinion is supported at the rear by an oilite bushing. I didn't pay close attention when I took the reel apart so from this point on, until I eventually figured it out, I was curious as to what would keep the anti-reverse wire in place. It kept popping out of the little notches and the dog/lever kept raising up on the post. As it turns out the sideplate has legs that old them in place once installed.



At this point I decided to work on the rotor and install the bail trip levers. Both trip levers just slip over studs in the rotor and a plate keeps them on the studs. Dam bail trips have adjustable tension posts. You can set the sensitivity to light, medium or heavy, depending on which stud you attach the spring to. I always set mine on medium first and see how I like the way it responds. I've never switched to light or heavy.  



The main trip lever has a cushion on the portion that hits the trip stud on the body. These cushions get hard and brittle as they age. This is what the old one looked like, it was hard and had cracked.



I learned on my 1001 that an 1/8" clear vinyl hose was a perfect fit so I made a new one.



There are a couple of plastic clips that allow removal of and secure the bail spring trip lever. The one with the slot goes in first and the one with the clips hold everything up and in place.



Next I installed the rotor onto the body frame. The bronze spacer washer goes under the plate. The plate holds the trip levers down and secures the pinion worm gear to spin the rotor. There's a hole in the plate that goes over the bail spring trip plate stud. The center hole has flat sides to secure the worm gear. There's a spring washer and hex nut. The pinion and nut are right hand threads.



I decided to install the bail spring and bail arm next. It's a pretty straight forward process. I use ArmorAll for bail spring lubricant because it doesn't collect dirt as bad as oil or grease. Put the spring in the hole in the rotor, put the plate over the spring to keep it down, insert the end of the spring into the hole in the backside of the bail arm, move the spring tension with the bail arm so the arm is in its correct place and install the plastic washer and screw.



Now I'll install the bail. As you can see, the rotor counter balance turned out looking really nice. That filler primer really took care of the pitting and the finish is just as good as the rest of the reel. It took a little while on this one to get the bail adjusted and fitting perfectly. It kept trying to rub on the counterbalance.   The line guide rolls but it does not have any type of bushing. I lubricate line rollers with ArmorAll, too.



Time to install the crank handle onto the mail gear. Thanks again, Fred, for access to the handle!   The spring goes inside the red & black sleeve and the main gear shaft is roll pinned to the handle with the sleeve in between. The main gear shaft goes through the oilite bushing in the fitting. Next is a protective washer on the outside and the shaft is retained with an E-clip.



Here you can see the handle installed on the main gear shaft and also see how it flips over. When it's released the spring slides the sleeve over the chrome insert. Next step is to install the main gear, the main shaft and the oscillation arm. There are shim washers on both side of the oscillation arm and it attached to the gear with a clip. The arm attaches to the main shaft with a pin.



The final steps are to install the sideplate & medallion fitting, spool and glue on the High Speed decal. You can see the legs on the sideplate that hold the anti-reverse wire and dog/lever in place. One screw is a little shorter than the other two so it needs to go in the correct location.



All done and ready to go! It polished up well and turned out looking really nice considering how bad that counterbalance looked when I got it.



 

[foakes]

Beautiful work and explanation of your expertise, Tom --

Hope you use it during one of your upcoming fishing trips.

The strong capability and function of these tough reels will astound you.

Terrific job!  Looks like new --

Best,

Fred

[mo65]

   Top shelf work Tom...she looks fantastic! Are the felt drags stock? I was thinking these models had asbestos drags...maybe that was the '02 series.

[Midway Tommy]

I suppose they could be asbestos, but after a good soak in the thinner jar they sure were pliable. They were, though, a little stiffer than the couple of felt washers I've previously come across. I guess I've never worked on a reel that I knew had asbestos washers. I assumed they were felt, I loath assumptions so shame on me for that!    They are stock and they are what they are so maybe Fred knows the original material.   

[mo65]

  I'm pretty sure that was the '01 series that had the asbestos drags, you're right, Fred will shine some light on it.  You'd know one if you saw it Tom...they're hard as a rock...look just like brake pads. I'm remembering now that my 1000 has a rubbery type washer. Sounds like every series has different drags.

[basto]

Perfect job as usual Tommy. I thought I recognised the first pic of the 3001. I took it.
All the best.
Greg

[foakes]

I'll check out the drag differences and report back later tonight.

Am down in town for errands this afternoon -- first time down in a couple of weeks.

I have plenty of new '01 & '02 spools to just pop apart for an accurate drag review.

Best,

Fred

[happyhooker]

Interesting--thanks Tommy & Fred.

Frank

[foakes]

Here are a couple of new spools -- a 2001 & a 2002.

The 2001 spool is metal construction and has an under-spool felt washer -- plus a felt drag washer.

The 2002 spool is a HD graphite construction with a HD under-spool plastic teflon washer along with a matching plastic teflon drag washer.

No asbestos or resistex in either one.

Best,

Fred

[Balvar24]

I believe the ones (or at least some) of the asbestos drag reels say so right on the end of the spool.

[mo65]

I believe the ones (or at least some) of the asbestos drag reels say so right on the end of the spool.

  Yep...after researching these Champion series drags a bit more I've noticed the '00 models like the 3000 and larger do say "asbestos disc brake" on the spool. Then the later '01 and '02 series spools only say "disc brake". The '01 series uses a soft felt looking washer like Tommy's 2001, and Alan Hawk's review says that washer is asbestos. Hmm...sure looked like felt!

I believe Alan H's review was of the largest '01 -- the 5001.  5001 is a tough, well engineered, large HD spinner -- with a larger drag surface area.  This is the main advantage over the similar 5000.

D.A.M. didn't use the same drag material in any complete series of reels.  Rather, the drag material was optimum for the day -- and geared towards both the capacity of the reel and the intended quarry's weight.  Asbestos, resistex, nylon, hard nylon, felt, or even leather have all been used effectively in the DQ reels.

The DQ engineers were hardy fishermen, as well as skilled machinists.  They knew what a particular sized reel needed for a certain type of fishing.  Lakes, rivers, streams, canals, salt water, surf, and current.

They probably forgot more than most subsequent reel-makers would ever know about materials, design, simplicity, and function -- and they did not forget much.  The D-A-M reels up until about '84 -- were designed to be a fisherman's lifelong partner. 

That actually makes them the cheapest reels you could ever invest in -- since they did not need to be replaced every few years -- just routinely fished, cherished, and serviced sensibly.  No drama -- just effective results.

The cheapest reel with the most value -- is the one that doesn't need replacing every few years, is designed to last for a lifetime, and then handed to the next generation to continue fishing it.

This is true about many other things in life -- not just reels.

Best, Fred

[mo65]

D.A.M. didn't use the same drag material in any complete series of reels. 

   Ain't that the truth, I'm discovering this as I learn. I'm even noting differences within the various material types. For instance...some asbestos washers are like the first photo...a hard material resembling automotive brake pads. This came from a Quick 3000. Then the one in the second pic is from a Quick 5000, and is a dead ringer for felt, but the spool and other sources say it's asbestos. Add to the confusion the various materials prefer differing operation modes...some oiled...some greased...and some even dry. For optimum drag performance you gotta be on yer toes!

[basto]

Take a look at the top drag washer in Alan Hawk`s review of the 5001. Alan states that this is asbestos.
They don't look like any asbestos washers I have removed from old PENN reels.
My two 3001 reels have the same washers under and on top of their spools as the top washer in Alan`s review, and
they are the same size as the 5001 washers.
Greg

[Rivverrat]

 What some of you are calling felt is in fact asbestos. Asbestos comes in many forms. At one time there was even rope made from it... Jeff

[philaroman]

might it not be both...  i.e., "asbestos felt"
isn't felt just non-woven fabric (pressed/formed fibers), regardless of base material
you know, wool in hats; poly(?) on pool tables; etc.
what is the base material in that [off]white reel felt, anyway?