tld 20/25

[RowdyW]

Maybe check the right bearing.

[Stuck]

OK, One item at a time and changing the part back before trying the next one. I tried the RH bearing, drag nut, drag plate assembly, drag washer and it didn't come good until I tried the spool out of one of my 25's and then I put the suspect spool into my 25 and it played up. Is there anything I can check on the bad spool or do we just start looking for another spool ?. None of my reel receipts are younger than 10 years old and the bloke that owns it hasn't got the receipt for it so warranty's doubtful.

[Stuck]

All good. I gave the spool to a machinist mate of mine and he said there was a small amount of runout in the spool. He said had to take no more than about .005" off of the drag face to get it running true. I put it back together doubting that that could make a difference and now it's every bit as good as my other TLD's.  

[PanamaTom]

I am Panama bound in two weeks and looking forward to abusing these old neglected TLD 20s again on some big game.  Thank you Alan for the tutorial, advice, and parts!

[alantani]

have a great trip!!!!!

[luckybass]

Ever have an issue taking the preprogram dial off? It starts to unscrew off then stops and becomes extremely tough to turn. When it breaks free, there is a pop and it resets itself for me to start the process all over again. Any suggestions?

[Rick Lyons]

So I have been struggling with a TLD25 trying to get any free spool when there was any drag at strike. If I turned the preset knob enough to get even a small amount of drag at strike I lost free spool. I took it apart and put it back together too many times. Here's what I found after really trying to understand how this thing works,



This little brass bit, lever shaft body, TLD0011 rides on the cam built into the handle. It should remain stationary as the drag lever is moved. In this case the stainless steel of the shaft hogged out the formerly squared off hole but only from the bottom since the shaft tapers to round at its end. From the top TLD011 still looks squared. The TLD0011 was turning with the drag lever.

I won this battle.

[handi2]

The deformed lever shaft body is usually from someone turning the preset dial while not in free spool. The TLD must be in free spool when adjusting the drag pressure.

Once you get a new one you should be good to go.

[erikpowell]

Hi Rick,

Keith is correct. If the Lever Shaft Body is at all deformed (it's square "hole" is rounded off), your freespool and shifting will be messed up.

When you replace it, do it as a set with a new Pre-program dial also. They are cheap, and usually the first place to fail on a TLD.
Replace those at the first sign of corrosion. If your's is still good, cool, you'll have a spare.
Believe me you'll need it in a year or so.

[Rick Lyons]

Thanks for the replies. Yes, I'm sure they were twisting away on the pre programmed dial all the time and ground out the brass of the lever shaft body.

So I'm just an amateur working on friend's gear. When I'm trying to fix something that I haven't worked on before the tricky part is making sure I understand how the thing works, like the lever shaft body staying stationary with the shaft and riding on the cam in the lever when it's turned. Once I got that it was easy to find that the lever shaft body was damaged. It's oddly satisfying.

Now the hard part is trying to teach somebody what not to do with their gear.

[Jamie D]

Hi Guys ,

Quick Question , after a recent servicing and rebuild on my TLD 20 , I found with the pre dail knob tightened all the way up to give maximum drag the handle become stiff and hard to turn , not impossible just an effort , are there any thoughts on things I could check to see if that is the problem ? Any help appreciated

[SoCalAngler]

Hi Guys ,

Quick Question , after a recent servicing and rebuild on my TLD 20 , I found with the pre dail knob tightened all the way up to give maximum drag the handle become stiff and hard to turn , not impossible just an effort , are there any thoughts on things I could check to see if that is the problem ? Any help appreciated

Most likely since you tightened the "pre dial knob" all the way up you are way above the maximum drag rating for the reel. Going over the max drag the pinion is pulled too tight into the pinion bearing making the handle hard to turn then drag is applied. This will destroy the pinion bearing if you fish the reel with this amount of drag and could even damage the bearing when testing.

[Jamie D]

Hi Guys ,

Quick Question , after a recent servicing and rebuild on my TLD 20 , I found with the pre dail knob tightened all the way up to give maximum drag the handle become stiff and hard to turn , not impossible just an effort , are there any thoughts on things I could check to see if that is the problem ? Any help appreciated

Most likely since you tightened the "pre dial knob" all the way up you are way above the maximum drag rating for the reel. Going over the max drag the pinion is pulled too tight into the pinion bearing making the handle hard to turn then drag is applied. This will destroy the pinion bearing if you fish the reel with this amount of drag and could even damage the bearing when testing.

Thanks for the Feedback Socal

[luckybass]

Hi Alan,

I received everything on Friday and your check is in today's mail.  Thank you!

I serviced the reel on Saturday for fishing on Sunday.  The reason I started working on this reel in the first place was that it had no freespool unless I backed the preselect way off to the point there was almost no drag in strike position.  Unfortunately, after servicing following your tutorial, I seem to have the same problem.  It is perhaps slightly improved.  Some of the details below:

-   I removed the shield from all the shaft bearings and seemed to be in good condition – no rust and all spun freely.  Still, I cleaned all with carb cleaner and lubed with ReelX.  The right main side plate bearing was also in good shape but I cleaned the old grease out and lubed with blue grease.

-   I removed the flat washer and installed the 5 pre-load spring B's with the configuration "(()))"

-   I installed the shim washer, with the preload spring "A" in the down position, but there still was play so I took it back apart and installed the preload spring in the up position.  After the second installation, there was no play.

When I was done I had about 75 seconds free spool as long as the preprogram dial was backed off enough to get freespool.  However, when I adjusted the preprogram dial until I got 10 pounds drag at the strike position, I lost all freespool.  In order to regain freespool, I must back off the preselect a little less than a half turn, about 160 to 170 degrees.  I did not measure how much drag I had at strike with that preselect setting, but it was very little, perhaps a couple pounds at most.

So...what gives?  Did I do something wrong?  Is there something else I must do?

P.S.  The drag is sweet.  Smooth as butter.

i'm going to assume that the installation is correct and you have no broken belleville washers.  could the pressure plate be seriously cockeyed?  you trued it up with washer!  review the rebuild tutorial if you need to, but i'm guessing you did not make a mistake in the rebuild.  first thing.  set the drag to 15 pounds and pull on the line.  this will "seat" everything properly.  now back off on the lever and see if you get freespool.  didn't work, did it......

with the reel assembled, throw the lever back and forth and make sure the spool snaps left to right properly.  if not, the spool shaft could be getting stuck in that hole in the left side plate.  unlikely, but possible......

back the preset knob way off until the spool spins freely.  then turn the preset knob down until you can spin the spool and you loose freespool.  check the drag again.  only 10 pounds, huh?  ok, next......

nothing worked, right?  ok, call shimano at 877-577-0600 and order up a new lever.  yours might be worn.  keep me posted.  alan

Having this same issue as we speak, was there an outcome of this? I'm open to suggestions.

[alantani]

check the brass cam under the preset knob.  i found one yesterday that was cracked.