Left vs Right-hand Baitcasting Reel - Pinion and Drive gears swappable?

[badfish79]

So I have a right handed Tournament MB which has been my favorite/main reel for almost 5 years. Its finally starting to feel geary on the retrieve. I've taken it apart multiple times and cleaned and re-greased and re-oiled it, but I cant get that geary feeling to go away. I dont know what I am missing. I am very much an amateur at reel maintenance, but I'm good at youtubing and feel like I covered most of what needs to be done. I brushed the gear teeth on the pinion and drive gears multiple times, including after a long soak in acetone to make sure no old gunk was missed. The geary-ness is still there.

 

So I also have a left handed Tournament MB that I don't use often at all. Same gear ratio and all. It still reels smooth like its supposed to. Can I swap the pinion and drive gear from that reel into my right handed one to see if those parts in the right hander are just worn out? Or are they machined in a different direction? The official Lews schematic doesnt have individual part numbers for left or right reels.

 

Asking before I start the process of taking both of these reels down for the swap and end up with no progress back to the smooth reeling that I'm used to. Kinda nervous to have both reels broken down at the same time.

 

Thanks in advance for any advice you can share.

[FrnkNsteen]

Sorry, but no. You cannot swap the gears from a RH to a LH, or vice versa due to direction of cut on the gears.

 

I've had the same question in the past, as well as having to wait longer to get a 6spd gear set for my Curado DC because the lefties were not in stock and a RH couldn't be used.

[badfish79]

Would you think it's a worn out gear set? Should I give a local professional cleaning a shot at it? The closest Lew's service center is in Texas and I imagine I'll need to cover shipping on top of the service. At that point I might just apply those funds toward a new reel. I really like this one though.

[FishTank]

Try cleaning all the bearings, including the AR, in acetone like you did with the pinion and main gear. In most cases, it's the AR bearing. It's easy to check. When the reel is apart, take the sleeve and use it turn the spool. 

[badfish79]

I'll give cleaning/soaking the AR bearing a shot. Would that be another name for the one way clutch bearing?

[FishTank]

9 minutes ago, fish_burrito said:

I'll give cleaning/soaking the AR bearing a shot. Would that be another name for the one way clutch bearing?

The AR and one clutch bearing are the same thing.  Sometimes gunk can get in there and makes the reel feel off.  

 

Also, I have an Abu ALX that has become geary and not smooth. I have tried everything I can with it and all parts feel fine but once reassembled the geary feeling remains.  Other than that, the reel casts and performs well. 

[newapti5]

Cleaning gears isn't miracle work. After several years of frequent usage, every reel will eventually develop the "geary" feeling, and cleaning would only alleviate the feeling a little bit.  The sure way to fix that is to change the gear set. 

[Tatulatard]

16 hours ago, newapti5 said:

Cleaning gears isn't miracle work. After several years of frequent usage, every reel will eventually develop the "geary" feeling, and cleaning would only alleviate the feeling a little bit.  The sure way to fix that is to change the gear set. 

True but the culprit of rapidly becoming geary or geary out of the box is often a pinion bearing or handle shaft bearing.  It's always worth an inspection or part swap if you keep them on hand.