a little off the subject but here goes. does anyone know where to find info. on reel repair or is it just trial and error.

Bill
I repaired reels for about 17 years. What I did was send to the different reel companies and get their repair manuals and parts catalogs. Then I got some different reels and took them apart to see how they worked then put them back together. I was used to working with machinery and gears so it did not take me very long to figure out how to repair reels. If you do run into a problem you can always get help from a repair center or the company. I quit repairing reels about 3 years ago. My biggest problem was getting some of the parts that were needed. There may be a better way to do it but this is how I did it.

Tim

It isn't rocket science. If it was I wouldn't have done it for the past 30 years LOL. Like a fool, I just keep torturing myself keeping the repair side of my business open.

Get the reel manual. Take one part off at a time and relate it to the manual. Put it back together in the same order.

If you run into a problem, email me and I'll give you my phone number.

Hi, Bill, I sent you some links to informative web pages....let me know if they caught,and if not, I will just type out the urls in an e-mail. being self-taught, I loused up more than once, still have trouble with certain species. Cheers.... Ken.

I do a lot of reel repair, too. I learned on my own reels over the years before doing it professionally. The basic principles layed out above will help. As you take it off put it in order on the work surface then it goes back together in the reverse order. Tearing them down and putting them back together is the easy part. The hard part is diagnosing some of the problems you come across for the first time. Many of the fixes are quite simple but every so often you will run into a bugger. Once figured out you will remember what caused it when you run across it again and it will be a simple fix from then on. It's the first time that can be tough. After a bunch of years of repairing reels I have seen just about everything but even still once in a while I get a good one. It is all trial and error and as you get familiar with the mechanics of reels you will see that they are all very similar yet each has it's quirks and tricks. If you have questions or problems just email me and I'll try to help.

Video yourself taking it apart. In some cases a picture is worth a million words.

If not video, use a digital camera. Take pics as you disassemble. Use this alot when restoring or rebuilding cars and engine compartments. Don't have the cost of developing pics and you can either save them for future reels of the same model or delete them. No cost if you already have the camera.