Need Help! Reel Maintenance Failure...

[Finesse7]

Today I decided to try and do a little maintenance on my Lew's Tournament Speed Spool. I went to my local Dick's Sporting Goods and picked up the Ardent reel maintenance kit. I took apart my reel, and put the butter, oil, and bearing oil in their respectable places. After putting my reel back together, I cranked the handle and heard the most awful sound. For a reason unknown to me, the two main gears make a horrible grinding sound when I crank the handle. I pulled a picture from the internet to show the two gears that are giving me the problem (they are the gold ones). If anyone has a solution to his it would be greatly appreciated!

[J Francho]

Send it to Delaware Valley Tackle. Mike will get it working for you.

[ClackerBuzz]

holy shameless plug.  this site is amazing for so many reasons and yet shameless sponsor/product pushing is the most embarrassing part of it (in defense every site pushes their sponsors but none quite so shamelessly).

mike from DVT is amazing and will def get ur reel running...and super tune the bleep out of it. something tells me he's not ur man at this point in ur life. you're a young guy, probably in high school, that clearly joined this site to figure out how to fix it yourself b/c you don't have money to spare.

 

don't panic you'll get it working soon enough. you just put something back together wrong and a few more attempts will be the cure. i'd bet $20 the problem will be fixed if you simply break it down and put it back together 3 more times. 

did you watch any youtube vids? you can learn a lot from all reel maintenance videos (lews, bps, shimano etc). and follow ur reel schematics while doing it.

this shimano vid does a great job of exposing all the parts and how they stack back together. keep an open mind b/c your reel is basically the same.

[Sam]

Caleb, next time let the pros do it for you on your good reels.

 

Save your pennies and dimes and buy a less expensive baitcaster and practice on it before you attack your top reels.

 

And please introduce yourself in the Introductions Section and add your location to your avatar.

 

Knowing where you live gives us a lot of information so we can answer your questions better.

 

Welcome to the Forum. Don't disappear on us. Read the posts and add your information plus ask us some questions.

 

Tight Lines.

[aavery2]

Are you cranking the reel without the spool installed?

[Smallmouth Hunter]

First off, ardent's maintenance kit is probably the worst on the market. Very grimy and slimy.

 

Did you put the spool back in the reel when you turned the handle? The pinion gear is unsupported in all PF cookie cutter reels so unless the spool shaft is in, it will scrape the heck out of the frame. I hope you didn't turn the handle too much.

 

Did you take the reel completely apart? You really shouldn't apply grease or oil to anything unless you clean out what was there before. The "lube port" on some reels is a complete marketing ploy for the most part. If you use that without cleaning the original grease out of every single groove in the main gear, you are just piling more grease on top of the old junk which will then be deposited on the yoke when the pinion gear pushes it out of the main gear. For bearings, make sure you flush them out with acetone or lighter fluid or even brake fluid. Then just apply one drop of oil.

 

You appear to be in highschool so I would advise you to solve this issue with the gears making noise, fish the heck out of it, and then send your reel in when it has been 1 year since you first used it.

[BobP]

OK, obviously you put something back together wrong.  You need to crack the reel open again and closely study the diagram that came with it to see if you can figure out what that was.  Nobody ever learns to service reels without screwing something up in re-assembly a few times.  You'll learn from your mistakes and you will know it's a lot easier to take something apart than to put it back together properly.  Some guys just don't have the aptitude or the patience and never get it right.  For them, a pro reel service center is the way to go.

[Finesse7]

Ok, thanks everyone for the responses. I'm taking everyone's responses into consideration and if I can't figure it out I'll take the reel to a professional. Thanks!

[J Francho]

Shameless plug Clacker? It's the simplest and least expensive option and your guaranteed to get the thing working right. It's just good advice. I do not recommend most tear their reels apart. It's a disaster waiting to happen for all but a select few that will find it easy and enjoyable.

A shameless plug would be me telling him to send it to me, and profiting from his misfortune while taking advantage of my privileges on this forum.

[MrSwimJig]

By any chance did you happen to remove the one way needle bearing from the handle side plate?

[Smallmouth Hunter]

Ok, thanks everyone for the responses. I'm taking everyone's responses into consideration and if I can't figure it out I'll take the reel to a professional. Thanks!

Please answer the questions so we can help you out.

 

 

Did you put the spool back in the reel when you turned the handle?

How far did you take the reel apart? Did you take off the handle sideplate and gears?

[Finesse7]

Yes, I put the spool back in the reel. I took both side plates off and I took off the gears.

[J Francho]

I suggest getting ahold of a schematic and trying again. Obviously, something is not installed correctly. If you can't find a Lew's diagram, one of the current Revo sheets will work, since the guts are essentially the same.

[Mattfrom_NJ]

I did this also. Send it to dvt you will not regret it.

[frogflogger]

Keep at it you'll figure it out. I repaired and serviced reels for years and always encouraged folks to learn to do their own. There's lots of good advice on here and around the web - being able to take care of your own stuff is a good thing. Take your time, it ain't rocket science. Although I do have a Daiwa that gives me fits.