Curado worm gear issue

[PBBrandon]

So I currently have 2 Curado K reels. An 8.5 and a 7.4. The 7.4 is flawless and has always been good, the 8.5 on the other hand has meanwhile became a little tight when reeling. Like the handle takes a lot more effort to turn than my free spinning 7.4. So I took it apart, soaked the bearings in acetone, re-oiled them, cleaned and regreased the gears, the whole 9 yards. Just gutted the whole thing and cleaned it. However it still didn’t change anything. One thing I noticed that is most likely the issue is that when I spin the handle shaft with just the idle gears, it is pretty choppy. The handle idle gear has a bearing on it and spins nice, but the worm idle gear has a bushing and is really choppy and hard to spin. This issue is not present in the other reel. Does anyone know what would cause this? Thank you

[garroyo130]

What do you mean tight when reeling?

 

The bushing should not make it hard to spin. Without the drive gears, are you able to turn the worm gear easily by hand? 

[PBBrandon]

In general the reel doesn’t spin as freely and there feels like more resistance. If I have the drive gear off and just spin the worm gear it is choppy when spinning

[garroyo130]

Yeah something else is off there. If you pull the line guide pawl off does it make a difference? 

[PBBrandon]

Just now, garroyo130 said:

Yeah something else is off there. If you pull the line guide pawl does it make a difference? 

I haven’t tried that, I’ll see if that does anything

[Delaware Valley Tackle]

You didn’t tear it all the way down if the worm gear assembly wasn’t taken apart and cleaned. The exposed nature of the worm gear makes it more critical to service than anything you have to split the cases to reach. 

[dodgeguy]

9 hours ago, Delaware Valley Tackle said:

You didn’t tear it all the way down if the worm gear assembly wasn’t taken apart and cleaned. The exposed nature of the worm gear makes it more critical to service than anything you have to split the cases to reach. 

Especially in heavy weeds.

[PBBrandon]

14 hours ago, Delaware Valley Tackle said:

You didn’t tear it all the way down if the worm gear assembly wasn’t taken apart and cleaned. The exposed nature of the worm gear makes it more critical to service than anything you have to split the cases to reach. 

I did take the worm gear apart, cleaned it off and then greased it. Might have not done it correctly though. Has only seen open water use too and wasn’t dirty or anything. I’ll tear it apart one more time and if that doesn’t work I’ll get it professionally lubed lol

[PressuredFishing]

If the worm gear itself looks in good condition try this. Most common fix for this when I have this issue is the plastic gears on the reel. Let me ask if you took all the pieces off of the reel? On 99% of low profile baitcasters there are two small plastic gears that turn the line guide, check if any are missing teeth, they should not be missing teeth. Now there should be some kind of metal plate holding it in place, on this example it is piece number 01 on top left of screen.  If have never touched it sense recieving from the factory  it is not the issue. However if you took it off and screwed it back on and the reel is worse than before that is your issue. This is because you don't want to put it on fingertight but instead looser. This is because it kind of acts like a leveling system for the gear and if you crank it down the gears won't be even. 

(If you have not touched this piece it should not be an issue)

 

P.S (one of the worm gear bars could be bent, the ones supporting it, all issues listed above where issues from some of my reels with unsmooth retrieves and broken line guide movement)

 

 

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1m6XgTKqoejfw1ila8hpQwoNQHzCqol3G/view

[Phil77]

sounds like gunk or debris in the worm shaft and pawl.

[PBBrandon]

Well I fixed it somehow. I think it was a bent worm gear. Bent it back a little and that helped. Not a fan of the plastic worm gear but I guess Curados already weigh almost 8oz, so weight had to be cut somewhere lol. Thanks y’all for the help ?

[jbsoonerfan]

So I'm guessing this didn't happen under normal fishing conditions? More than likely you got hung up and pulled and pulled trying to break off or pull the lure loose. I have a buddy who gets hung up and locks his drag down and tries to break 40 lb braid instead of just cutting it. Then after a while his drag starts slipping and he is upset with the reel. 

[PBBrandon]

12 minutes ago, jbsoonerfan said:

So I'm guessing this didn't happen under normal fishing conditions? More than likely you got hung up and pulled and pulled trying to break off or pull the lure loose. I have a buddy who gets hung up and locks his drag down and tries to break 40 lb braid instead of just cutting it. Then after a while his drag starts slipping and he is upset with the reel. 

I doubt it, I make sure I don’t try to free snags I know I won’t be able to, and I don’t try to muscle them out lol. Only had 15lb fluoro on it as well. I’m not sure how it happened but at least it’s fixed

[jbsoonerfan]

1 minute ago, PBBrandon said:

I doubt it, I make sure I don’t try to free snags I know I won’t be able to, and I don’t try to muscle them out lol. Only had 15lb fluoro on it as well. I’m not sure how it happened but at least it’s fixed

That is a good deal. I just can't imagine it getting bent under normal fishing conditions. But I've never seen a UFO and a lot of people have.

[Phil77]

Was it the wormshaft that was bent or the worm gear? I've never encountered a bent plastic gear. 

[garroyo130]

1 hour ago, Phil77 said:

Was it the wormshaft that was bent or the worm gear? I've never encountered a bent plastic gear. 

 

Or the shaft. The plastic used isn't meant to bend and there should be no pressure on it from normal use. 

[Phil77]

2 hours ago, garroyo130 said:

 

Or the shaft. The plastic used isn't meant to bend and there should be no pressure on it from normal use. 

That's why I had to ask because I have two K's that I have abused thoroughly over the last few years that have no issues.

[PressuredFishing]

11 hours ago, PBBrandon said:

Well I fixed it somehow. I think it was a bent worm gear. Bent it back a little and that helped. Not a fan of the plastic worm gear but I guess Curados already weigh almost 8oz, so weight had to be cut somewhere lol. Thanks y’all for the help ?

Glad I could help a little 

 

[jeffalessi801]

Cleaned my curado the other day and had a weird issue that you may have had, when I clipped the c clip on over the little brass shim on the opposite side of the handle frame the brass shim was a tiny bit off from center, made the entire reel turn into crap, after 5 minutes of playing with it I figured it out and used tweezers to pop it back and align correctly and the reel became smooth again. I’m not gonna say it made the reel seize up because I could still reel it like normal it just wasn’t smooth and really could have stumped someone who rushed the reel back together. Luckily I spun the handle after every new part I put together and immediately caught it before continuing.