# Reel maintenance - advice required



## Guest (Nov 15, 2013)

spray and soak. it may take a couple of days


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## Tomcat01 (Oct 21, 2013)

definitely spray and soak. any kind of penetrating oil will do. dont want to force it to turn. the old senators are great reels. i had a couple of them when i was in the states. gave them to my dad when i moved here. if i would have known who much fishing gear costed here i would have brought it all with me.


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## Scott (Aug 29, 2005)

Hi mate as Nad said spray and soak. I spent about 4 years doing warranty work for and servicing for Penn in my younger days. 4/0 Senators are easy to work on but re-assembling is a bit tricky. They have a small loose spring called the dog spring that works the anti reverse. It is tricky to get this seated when reassembling the reel. It normally ends up getting squashed when you re-assemble. If it is one of the really old senators then you can re-assemble with the drag washers not being in it as they can drop in through the side plate. Most aren't like this however and the reel needs to be re-assembled with the drag washers in it.

A trick i would use is to seat the drag washers in the main gear and then sit the main gear on the bridge (the brass plate with the thread the star drag screws on. Then place them in the side plate holding the side plate upside down. Remove the bridge but keep the main gear and drag washers in the side plate. Get your dog and dog spring ready (the anti reverse pawl and spring) Drop the bridge almost all of the way in and then seat the dog and spring in place. Drop the bridge the rest of the way in and only put in the one screw that goes through the dog. (you need to do this to hold the dog in place. Then turn the bridge like you are turning the handle. If it turns easily and the anti reverse works then you haven't crushed the spring and you can then put in the remaining three bridge screws. Put in the two top ones first as this aligns the yoke which the pinion gear sits on.

The only other thing to watch is that the metal drag washers are slightly concave. Lightly rub them with sand paper to see if they are wearing on the inside or the outside. Once this is known seat them in the main gear with the outside wearing side downwards (so they are cupped with the peak facing towards the handle when the reel is reassembled). If you get into any trouble send me a PM and i'll talk you through it. If the little oil port on the handle is seized and you can't unseize it, drill it out and apply oil this way. If this is the case just oil it more regularly or drill it out a bit bigger again and place a small felt pad in it like on a Alvey.


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## Scott (Aug 29, 2005)

Mate it depends on the drag washers. Is it a set of 3 or 5? If it is a set of three, then they are the old style and you are best to install a new HT-100 drag kit. The newer style of drag washers (HT-100) are carbonex. Penn were the first reel manufacturer to use this. If they are the Ht-100 ones just give them a good clean with acetone and re-assemble them. I have always ran them dry and never had an issue. If the drag is still lumpy check that they metal ones are all facing the same direction. Also if you can't get much drag variation , check they are all facing the the right direction and you have the tension spring (part number 8 or 8A) .


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## RhubarbTheYeti (Oct 28, 2013)

I too would like advice on the best grease to use, have just dismantled a reel which was giving trouble. Thought it may have been due to lack of care after dunkings but no corrosion inside.


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## Scott (Aug 29, 2005)

Guys as far as grease goes i would always use a very small amount of outboard motor grease on the gearing. Elsewhere i would use a high quality oil style lube like Triflow. If you can't get Triflow the local bikeshop with have a comparable oil. Don't use triflow on small to medium casting overheads and bait casters as it will reduce casting distance due to being too thick. I like TG's Rocket Fuel for casting overheads. You can get online from the states. it comes in three weights to suit different size reels.


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## cheaterparts (Jul 3, 2010)

cjbfisher said:


> I recently inherited a Penn Senator 4/0, which has not been used for many many years. I want to strip it down for a service,


I dont know if you need any bits but I have used these guys in the states for penn parts they have quite a range of bits

http://store.scottsbt.com/PennParts/Home.aspx



cjbfisher said:


> I haven't opened it up yet, so I'm not sure if it is 3 or 5. It's probably an early to mid eighties model. Do you know when they changed to 5? I'm guessing by the amount that the washers have compressed that it may be the 3 old felt washers.


I did up an old 12/0 senator a while ago that had the early 5 drag washer set and bought a complete 7 drag washer pack frictions and steels 
the HT100 were thiner than the older washers making room for the extra 2 fictions --- I also fitted an extra friction washer under the main gear instead of the fibre washer
and greased the drag with Shimano drag grease -- for an old reel it is quite smooth right up to 30 pound of drag


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