TackleTour

Pressed the clutch lever and made a cast. The clutch lever engaged mid-cast and I heard the ugliest grinding noise. Ever since then, it doesn’t cast far like it use to. I use to fling baits like crazy but now I’m lucky if I get 15 feet. Sent it to Shimano and they replaced the clutch cam, retainer, springs and some bearings. Still the same thing. It’s still silky smooth during the retrieve. No grinding or anything. It’s just the cast. You can hear and feel that it’s just not right. This actually happend about four years ago and the reel has been sitting around all that time. Saw it yesterday in my garage and figured I wanted to get it going again cause I could use another crankbait reel. Any help or suggestions before I send it back to Shimano would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Oh, if it matters any it’s a JDM Conquest I got years ago before they were available stateside. I got it from Brooklyn Bill, that’s how old it is!!

I would go ahead and check the spool out. I did this with a cheap Lew's reel but it didn't really hurt it (turned the handle during a long cast w/ heavy lure). I was told to check the pinion, spool itself, and a few of the things you mentioned that Shimano replaced for you.

For the issue you are having, if it is only bad during the cast, you can narrow it down to: spool, bearings, brake system, pinion (inside). Just basically all of the parts that have to deal with casting, if that is what the only issue is.

I had this happen with one of my Curado 51e. Started only casting half as far as the other I was using. Swapped gears to Core set, and installed a new spool and it was fixed, and still have no clue what caused it. Spool shaft and pinion looked fine, no obvious damage.

send it to Ian.

cndbasshunter wrote:send it to Ian.

X2!

(1) Clean everything really good and check for bits/pieces
(2) Check the spool, spin it with your finger while the clutch is disengaged
(3) Really examine the teeth on the pinion, not the gear teeth but the teeth that hold the spool

If this is only happening during the cast, it should be easy to narrow down and find it. I had this happen to a Tatula (not from engaging during a cast) and there ended up being sand around the frame. It retrieved fine and felt fine, but on a long hard cast it sounded awful sometimes and would backlash and even stop at times.


Or send to Ian

Maybe check the spool pin, and the mating slot in the pinion. Is the spool pin catching the pinion on the cast still?

Thanks everybody. I’ll dink around a bit and see if I can see anything.

y2k88 wrote:Maybe check the spool pin, and the mating slot in the pinion. Is the spool pin catching the pinion on the cast still?

I kept trying to imagine what would damage from an engagement during cast, that's the main component I would imagine to take the highest impact.

The spool or pinion gear is more than likely the culprit. When did you send the reel in for repair?

Hmmmm... been awhile. Maybe 4-5 years ago? Should be a record of it. Can you look it up somehow?

I can look it up from 4-5 years ago. I'm just curious why you waited 4-5 years later to point out it was not taken care of? The problem now is parts availability. You can send the reel in so I can take a look at it. I just am not sure if we have all the parts available to repair your reel depending on what the problem is.

Understandable. I bought another reel then to take its place and didn’t need it right away so I just stashed it. My fault on that.

I’m about 15 minutes away from Thorne Bros in Blaine, MN. I can go talk to them first and see what they think. Then I’ll take it from there. Thank you for your time sir.

They can take a look at it. The tech there spent a lot of time with us and we have good communication. He should be able to see what is going on.

Sent you a PM sir. Thanks for the input so far.