Piscifun Carbon X Repair....?

[Crow Horse]

I'm working on a Carbon X 3000 spinning reel that has developed a "roughness", deviating from it's normally smooth operation.  The problem developed on a hookset of a small bass. I retired the reel for the day and used my backup. This particular reel has seen some pretty serious service the last 2 years and admittedly I should have been more aggressive in maintaining it.

 

I disassembled the reel (I'm no stranger to doing this). I'm not ruling anything out now but my prime suspects are the pinion/main gear engagement and the associated bearings. With such small bearings I find it difficult to determine if a bearing is going bad. Catastrophic failure would be obvious, but I don't think you'd see that in a spinning reel.

 

Any help to diagnose this reel will be appreciated. I really like the Piscifun Carbon X. It's light, smooth and is perfect for my type of fishing.

[J Francho]

Looks like the only replacement part available from them is a spare spool.  You may have reached the usable life of the reel.  You can test a bearing of almost any small size on a sharpened pencil or chopstick.  It should spin freely and quietly.

[Crow Horse]

Spare parts are available from Piscifun although it's not clearly indicated on their website. I've contacted them via email, specified the part #'s I needed for the model I have and they charged me via Paypal. The only caveat is that the parts come from China (no surprise), so it takes longer than what I would like. It's still not bad, just inconvenient. It's one reason why I have 4 of this model. This is the first time one has gone down for repairs but I just swap in a spare waiting in the wings and I'm back out on the water. Time really doesn't play a role and hurt my fishing.

 

I've read that Piscifun are made in Daiwa factory but haven't been able to confirm this.