Racketing Ocea Jigger 2001NRHG - Factory mistake?

This is a curious case of a racketing Ocea Jigger 2001NRHG. A customer sent me this reel with very little hope as to what can be done to fix this reel. He encountered this problem just 5 minutes into his first ever jig retrieval and experienced this loud clacking noise from the reel. The spool would not spin like as though the gear didn't even engage properly.

Apparently, this reel has already been sent to our local Shimano guys for a warranty fix and was returned to the owner 6 months later, 6 MONTHS, deemed fixed but the problem still persist. The owner wasn't too keen to let Shimano have a look at it again for another 6 months and opted for a 3rd party service. It was also deemed fixed after the 3rd party visit and the problem still persist.

With very little hope left, the owner gave me a shot to have a look at it and this is what I found.

Perfectly new and normal looking Ocea Jigger loaded with lines ready for action.

To replicate the racketing effect, all you need to do is have the drag set to anything beyond medium strength, place a thumb on the spool, give it a few crank and the racketing starts. Video below as demonstration.


What this means is that the offending parts sit between the handle and the spool because I prevented the spool from moving thus eliminating parts on 'palming' side with spool lock mechanism. The first thing to do is just a simple visual inspection for any breakages and visible damages within the crank case.

Everything looks new like its fresh out of the factory.

To start with the process of elimination, suspicious parts can be removed independently to do a test to see if the clacking sound persists.

To start with, drag clicker wheel removed.

With the drag clicker ring removed, the racketing still goes on. Next suspect, fail safe anti-reverse gear disc and stopper.

Anti-reverse fail safe mechanism out too.

With both drag clicker and fail safe anti-reverse mechanism out, the racketing continues. Curious case indeed. Time to move deeper into the mechanical gear system. Visual inspection didn't reveal any gear teeth damages.

Main gear teeth is in pristine condition. No visible damages found.

With the main gears out, pinion gear is next. Visual inspection also didn't reveal anything out of the ordinary.

Pinion gear fits perfectly fine in the main plate with no visible damages.

Time to remove the crank case main plate. Again, starting with visual inspection didn't reveal any damages at all. The plot thickens!

Pinion gear fits nicely into the spool shaft with the cross pin seated in the pinion slot.

Upon closer inspection and some fiddling around the mechanical motion and linkages, this little and subtle detail looked a little bit our of place. The pinion gear slot itself. Before I go into the details of how it works, you need to know the basics concept. The pinion gear slides up and down the spool shaft when you engage or disengage the free spool lever. That's how you get free spooling.

Pinion gear with subtle mechanical detail that was a bit odd in relation to the mechanical movement linkages.

As pictured up close above, note that the slot isn't a simple cut out for the spool shaft cross pin to be seated. There are intricate details that makes up for the entire system to function. If you notice, there are 2 different edges within the slot. On the left, the longer edge serves as the catch and cross pin driver, slightly indented to have a firm hold on the cross pin sending rotational force to the spool. On the right, you have the slip edge. This is the edge when the free spool lever is disengaged, lowering the pinion onto the cross pin and sliding into the slot towards the catch edge.

With the above understanding, I figured that the pinion gear is probably from a right handled reel because most of the left & right handled reel parts are interchangeable and some parts are exclusive, the gears for example. But I suspect someone in the factory was sleeping on the job while assembling this reel.

A quick reference check using Shimano's reel schematics can set the direction to confirming this. I know for sure that the diagrams put up by Shimano isn't a 100% representation of a technical drawing but it does give you a clear indication of what part goes where. Below you will find the identification process.

Reel schematics indicates that the gears in this reel is probably the wrong set. Note the direction of rotation too.

Wrong set of pinions also means wrong set of main gears as it has to mesh for it to work. To identify the gears properly, take a look at the diagram below explaining how axial forces are being generated to lift the pinion gear off the cross pin.

Note the helical teeth orientation of a left handled gear on the diagram above vs actual below.

So the racketing noise actually comes from the pinion gears repeatedly slipping as you crank. Axial force generated from the helical gears are also lifting the pinion gear from the cross pin as explained below.

Pinion repeatedly slips as you crank. With the correct set of gears (right, bottom), the system will function as intended without slipping and the racketing noise.

The owner was glad that the problem has been clearly identified but wasn't too impressed with Shimano's ridiculous boo-boo on this. Are the folks at Shimano Japan factory sleeping on the job? These things shouldn't happen and are totally unacceptable. On top of that, this is one of their flagship reels with a proud 'made in japan' stamp on it. The competency of our local Shimano team is also unacceptable with a 6 months turn around time for a claimed fix and yet couldn't solve the problem.

An official report would be filed to our local Shimano and Japanese office to see what they have to say about this. Stay tuned!