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Referring to the plastic gear that moves the worm gear for the line guide. Has anyone ever broke those plastic gears? I've seen some paranoid folks on youtube and some forums that simply refuse to purchase a reel because of the plastic gearing, or 'bash' a reel that has them made out of plastic.

Firstly, they're making these gears out of hardened plastic that isn't your usual crap from a Dollar store. Secondly, how could the teeth of the gear break when no force is ever applied to the line guide/worm gear/plastic gearing
To me, it sounds like those people do no understand how this part of the reel works. So they assume it must be made out of metal because the main gear and pinion gear is made out of it

Have you had any problems with the plastic gears?

SSS wrote:Referring to the plastic gear that moves the worm gear for the line guide. Has anyone ever broke those plastic gears? I've seen some paranoid folks on youtube and some forums that simply refuse to purchase a reel because of the plastic gearing, or 'bash' a reel that has them made out of plastic.

Firstly, they're making these gears out of hardened plastic that isn't your usual crap from a Dollar store. Secondly, how could the teeth of the gear break when no force is ever applied to the line guide/worm gear/plastic gearing
To me, it sounds like those people do no understand how this part of the reel works. So they assume it must be made out of metal because the main gear and pinion gear is made out of it

Have you had any problems with the plastic gears?

I think most of them were referring to the worm gear that moves the pawl being plastic. After thinking longer and harder on it, I realize what you're saying. On the other hand, I guess constant retrieving and reeling line while under heavy pressure could wear out a plastic worm gear (levelwind) with a metal pawl digging into it over and over. To this day though, I have NEVER seen the plastic gears in the side plate that control levelwind movement break. I haven't witnessed any complaints over the Curado 70 plastic pawl/levelwind nor have I for the Curado K and many people were turned off of those reels because of that feature. I admit I complained a bit about it and would much prefer a metal one, but in a day of hi technology plastics... If you can't beat them, join them...

DirtyD64 wrote:

SSS wrote:Referring to the plastic gear that moves the worm gear for the line guide. Has anyone ever broke those plastic gears? I've seen some paranoid folks on youtube and some forums that simply refuse to purchase a reel because of the plastic gearing, or 'bash' a reel that has them made out of plastic.

Firstly, they're making these gears out of hardened plastic that isn't your usual crap from a Dollar store. Secondly, how could the teeth of the gear break when no force is ever applied to the line guide/worm gear/plastic gearing
To me, it sounds like those people do no understand how this part of the reel works. So they assume it must be made out of metal because the main gear and pinion gear is made out of it

Have you had any problems with the plastic gears?

I think most of them were referring to the worm gear that moves the pawl being plastic. After thinking longer and harder on it, I realize what you're saying. On the other hand, I guess constant retrieving and reeling line while under heavy pressure could wear out a plastic worm gear (levelwind) with a metal pawl digging into it over and over. To this day though, I have NEVER seen the plastic gears in the side plate that control levelwind movement break. I haven't witnessed any complaints over the Curado 70 plastic pawl/levelwind nor have I for the Curado K and many people were turned off of those reels because of that feature. I admit I complained a bit about it and would much prefer a metal one, but in a day of hi technology plastics... If you can't beat them, join them...

The black gear on the image is what i'm referring to. The large majority of the reels released in the last ~10 years have this gear made out of white plastic.
https://imgur.com/a/a7nDS

[/quote]The black gear on the image is what i'm referring to. The large majority of the reels released in the last ~10 years have this gear made out of white plastic.
https://imgur.com/a/a7nDS[/quote]

I got you, that is what I meant by the gear that controls the line guide/levelwind. The plastic people panic about is the middle of that black gear picture you posted. On a Curado 70/K that part is plastic, the long tube with slits in it that moves the line guide back and forth. I think that (worm gear/oscillator) mixed with a metal pawl scares people. But yes, I was on the same page as you and have NEVER seen the gear you pointed out damaged or even worn bad really.

The idle gears, no. The wormshaft, yes. And I still refuse.

Yes and a proper proper job of it too...

When the clutch return bar sheared and sent metal through the idler gears and really made a mess of my 201e Chronarch...

Otherwise under normal use and fatigue no never.

Shimano inputs that really neat redundancy system into the idler gear / handle shaft with those two sprung pins into selected reels - should simply put to bed any risk of shorn gears due to the level wind being obstructed - the gears just click over and life goes on without tears.

There is a reason that gear is plastic on levelwind reels. There were instances of the line guide pinching fingers and the metal-to-metal gears like the old round Abu reels simply wouldn't budge and allow the trapped finger to escape. It is a safety feature. If you wear one of those gears out, lmk. I have never seen it and I've been working on reels for 30+ years.

LgMouthGambler wrote:The idle gears, no. The wormshaft, yes. And I still refuse.

The wormshaft made out of plastic is pretty bad, but i haven't seen any daiwas with one, only shimano from what i've heard.

Never had a plastic idler gear issue. I use reels with disengaging and non-disengaging level-winds. Was doing a "quick clean" of worm gear once without disassembly. Sure enough, I got Q-tip cotton stuck in the pawl. Pretty much had to crank it through to free up and remove the jam. Found out 1st hand that these gears are pretty tuff!
(I wouldn't like to test the gear strength on MY fingers...)

Karl

SSS wrote:

LgMouthGambler wrote:The idle gears, no. The wormshaft, yes. And I still refuse.

The wormshaft made out of plastic is pretty bad, but i haven't seen any daiwas with one, only shimano from what i've heard.

And that plastic wormshaft is flimsy.

Yea, never ran into a plastic worm gear. I can imagine it could be stressed out when pulling a heavy drag, and the level-wind moves to an end position. Just enough angle with high torque on the line. Count me in on wanting metal worm gear.

Karl

diehardbassfishing wrote:Never had a plastic idler gear issue. I use reels with disengaging and non-disengaging level-winds. Was doing a "quick clean" of worm gear once without disassembly. Sure enough, I got Q-tip cotton stuck in the pawl. Pretty much had to crank it through to free up and remove the jam. Found out 1st hand that these gears are pretty tuff!
(I wouldn't like to test the gear strength on MY fingers...)

Karl

Thank god I am not alone. Tried to apply grease to a levelwind worm gear on my Zillion TWS with a Q-tip, sucked half of the cotton in. That was the first total reel breakdown I did on a nicer reel, so I guess it worked out and built my mechanical confidence...

Certain solvents can ruin plastics.

Have heard of people using brake cleaner and acetone on small parts - once the plastic has been attacked thats the only reason i could see that would prematurely degrade and ruin the gears to suddenly fail.

Slazmo wrote:Certain solvents can ruin plastics.

Have heard of people using brake cleaner and acetone on small parts - once the plastic has been attacked thats the only reason i could see that would prematurely degrade and ruin the gears to suddenly fail.

That would be the mistake of the user, not plastic itself.

Yeh absolutely, but could explain a lot of the second hand market reels failures if they did occur.