Newell stuck spool

[Jenx]

This is the first time I have ever opened up a Newell, and I can't seem to remove the spool from the gear plate. The pinion gear slides up and down on the spool shaft, but it won't completely come off. It feels like it is snagging on something. Any suggestions on what might be causing this?

Aside from the spool issue this appears to be a pretty simple reel to work on.

[vilters]

.

[nelz]

Maybe the bearing is fused onto the end of the spool shaft?

[Swami805]

So otherwise it works? it shifts in and out of free spool?

[PacRat]

It sounds like the bearing is stuck on the head-plate (crank) side...is that correct? Try putting it back together and un-screwing the bearing cup with the frame fully assembled. This will either pull the bearing free of the shaft or pull the bearing free of the bearing cup. Either way you should be able to progress to the next step after this. Be careful not to force anything to the point where something breaks.  Photos help us to help you.

[Cuttyhunker]

I recall The Boss commenting once about the common problem with the Newell reels of the pinion becoming stuck to the spool if left stored with the reeling mechanism engaged.  There is a pretty complete thread here on dealing with that issue on Penns.

[Jenx]

Thanks for the responses.

Just to clarify, I had no issues removing the side plate, so the end of the spool shaft was not stuck to the bearing. My issue is that I can't remove the spool from the gear plate because the pinion gear wont slide off the spool shaft. The pinion gear freely spins on the spool shaft, and even has a little up and down movement,so it's not fused to the shaft, yet it still wont slide off.

For now I have it soaking in WD40, and I'm hoping its nothing more than just some old dried grease or debris on the spool shaft that is snagging the pinion gear, or vice versa.

[Swami805]

  Sounds like yours isn't too bad as long as it's moving,  Might try some heat after it soaks for awhile
I've had few few with the pinion stuck on the shaft, never did get them off. I cut the pinion off with a dremel and got a new gear set.  The bridge won't come apart with the pinion on the shaft so it's hard to get a lot of pressure to force the pinion off without bending a bunch of other parts
The quality of stainless varied over the years, some of it wasn't to good and had corrosion issues

[PacRat]

Okay, now I better understand whats going on.

I would start by sanding the shaft a little bit. There are two places you do not want to touch with and abrasive. That's the spot where your pinion is sliding now and the step-down at the tip where it goes into the bearing. You can wrap that tip with tape to protect it.

To clean up the shaft, just wrap some sandpaper around the shaft, then pinch and twist. Check it often because you don't want to remove any more material than you have to.

If you get close but the pinion is still too tight; try applying heat just to the pinion gear. This will expand it in circumference. Try to use a concentrated heat source like a soldering iron. Everything that gets hot will expand but the pinion will expand more than the shaft.

You can clean up the inside of the pinion with some rolled up sand paper then polish both the pinion and the shaft. I like Flitz metal polish. You can cut the head off a Q-tip and use a dremel on the lowest speed with Flitz to polish the inside of the pinion after you get the fit right with sand paper.

[Jenx]

Thanks PacRat. Your recommendation on sanding it made me take a closer look at the spool shaft, and it looks like I found the culprit. It wasn't until I ran my finger nail along the spool shaft that I noticed it wasn't smooth, and right before the shaft steps-down there is a section sticking out. I'm assuming I just need to sand that area down to fix the problem.

[nelz]

Wow, looks like someone way over-tightened the bearing cups!

[handi2]

Yep

That spool was set super tight using the adjustable bearings.

Someone must have been dropping a heavy weight.

[Swami805]

New one on me, didn't know that could happen.  Glad you got it figured out

[Brewcrafter]

I would seriously inspect/think about replacing the bearings.  They might be fine but they really are not designed to function with heavy loads in the axial direction that would be enough to mushroom the shaft like that. - john