My parts came Yesterday and my reel is back in action.
If you get frustrated easily, this is a job I would pay someone else to do. Even with an exploded diagram and the educational YouTube video, it is still a tricky business to overhaul this reel.
I only had to take it apart about four times until I got everything installed correctly and tuned up a bit.
It’s easy to get the clutch discs out of alignment assembling it, and also I had a part upside down. You can see it in the picture of part 3-10 above: a little lever that runs the ratchet. There’s another part that locates the pinion gear and I took the reel apart once to reverse that, as I thought it would make the reel a little smoother. It had a slight wear pattern in it. Also the part had a slight cupping from the stamping process.
After lots of cleaning and oiling andgreasing and I am really happy with the way this works. The clicker is really loud though and I was thinking I might trim it down a little bit.
I have a “special” fishing rod I’m going to put it on, which is a 1972 Fenwick with all metal hardware & cork handles. The anodized aluminum threads have a jam nut which the plastic rods don’t.
Unfortunately it snapped at the joint so I’m going to do a Fiberglass-to-carbon-fiber transplant with this graphite Eagle Claw. This is a great rod with great action, but the plastic hardware is crap.
The Fenwick was my first fishing rod, and I am going to rescue it for sentimental reasons, and because it’s not plastic.
Here I have cut them both off and now the skiving & splicing begins.
The eagle claw has Much nicer line guides. It also has 6 inch more handle and 6 inch more tip. When I get done that 8 foot six rod will turn into about 7 foot six And I will lose the whole foot on the handle end.
This will work much better in the boat because the reel will not be so far from me when the rod is in the pole holder.
When I took the clutches out, I put a zip tie through the whole assembly including the gear, so I could get them back in order.
