Penn Reels Still Spinning in Freespool

[Jighead]

The squarish cutout on the pinion gear is not disengaging from the little squarish protrusion at the base of the spool shaft. 

You say the spool is misaligned.  Is it shifted too far toward the head plate (right side, handle side plate) with too much gap on the tail plate side?  Turn the screwed-in bushing in the center of the side plates to center the spool. There should be a tiny bit of side-to-side play in the spool; barely enough to feel it when the spool is pushed side-to-side.  If you cannot get the spool to move far enough to the left to center it, then you might need a shim in the right side bushing.

for the jigmaster, the spool is too far to the left. while trying to center the spool i asked AI the best way how to set the bearings and it said the head plate should be screwed in to its max so you only need to adjust with the left side plate. is there any truth to this? i dont have the head plate bearing screwed in all the way but it is tighter. im going to disassemble both reels over the weekend and check everything.

[JasonGotaProblem]

Short answer: AI is wrong again.

Don't trust AI for anything reel related. What you're gonna get is at best a bastardization of something it mined from here, worded in a convincing way.

And the knobs on a Jigmaster's plates do not behave like a modern reel. That's not a cast control. Those knobs are for spool position.

Procedure: Loosen both bearing cups almost all the way. Turn the reel sideways so handle side is down. Tighten the handle side cup until it just barely makes contact, that sets the position (edit: anything past that lessens the contact at the spool/pinion interface WHILE IN GEAR, which increases the risk of a different, much worse failure). Then tighten the clicker side cup down until it makes tight contact, and then back up a quarter turn. The spool should be almost perfectly centered after that.

[foakes]

Jason nailed the procedure —-

Best, Fred

[Jighead]

Short answer: AI is wrong again.

Don't trust AI for anything reel related. What you're gonna get is at best a bastardization of something it mined from here, worded in a convincing way.

And the knobs on a Jigmaster's plates do not behave like a modern reel. That's not a cast control. Those knobs are for spool position.

Procedure: Loosen both bearing cups almost all the way. Turn the reel sideways so handle side is down. Tighten the handle side cup until it just barely makes contact, that sets the position (edit: anything past that lessens the contact at the spool/pinion interface WHILE IN GEAR, which increases the risk of a different, much worse failure). Then tighten the clicker side cup down until it makes tight contact, and then back up a quarter turn. The spool should be almost perfectly centered after that.

awesome, ill give this a shot

[PacRat]

I think what you're experiencing is a pinion rub. Either your pinion gear is slightly tilted when disengaged or there is some grease or crud between the pinon bore and spool shaft. This will cause just enough friction to turn the spool while the while the pinion is disengaged. Sal taught me to clean and polish the spool shaft and pinion bore to reduce friction. It could also be an alignment issue with the yoke and jack. Check out this thread and I'll look for more from Sal. https://alantani.com/index.php/topic,37512.0.html
Read this also: https://alantani.com/index.php/topic,7574.msg399342.html#msg399342

[oldmanjoe]

 This thread needs pictures !

[JasonGotaProblem]

This thread needs pictures !

We've seen his fish, so we know he knows how!