Daily beater Curado

A friend went snakehead hunting sometime back and decided that it's about time to service his super reliable daily beater of Shimano's Curado. This reel hasn't been serviced for a while and only grease top up was done way back too.

The outlook of this reel is a no frills, straight to business type of reel. No fancy trickery, just awesome value. There aren't any issues with this reel, it just keeps going. A quick crank and drag test says that it's very well used, well integrated mechanical functions. Smooth, light and no hiccups. It should be a straight forward service.

Ready to be dissected, cleaned, re-lubed and put together.

1 ball bearing for each handle. Lock nut doubles up as a washer bearing. No rust, just works. Can definitely spin better, creamier and smoother with new packing of marine grease.

1 ball bearing for each handle while the lock nut doubles up as a washer bearing.

Clean exterior, no gunks around external fasterners. Light stains around the body and that's about as dirty this reel gets.

Spool's out, peeking through is RP Custom hybrid ceramic bearings. Main shaft is super clean with no signs of grease too.

Both RP Custom hybrid ceramic bearing looks to be in excellent condition. Spins freely without grit. Best left as it is.

One way bearing's clean too, no rust, no grease. Gearbox is a little dry. Drags too.

Apart from a dry gearbox, the drag system too is a little dry. Needs simple contact cleaning and re-lubed with drag grease to restore its smooth and full stopping power.

The first sign of grease top up, possibly mixed with original factory grease. Ultrasonic cleaning in the cards together with some mixed grease bearings.

Mixed grease combo to spanking clean surfaces in minutes ready for new layer of marine grease.

The crank case and cover's brushed down, contact cleaned and ready for a new coat of marine grease to displace water.

As value reel goes, there aren't many ball bearings installed. Marine grease pack some of them, re-coat all internal surfaces and the reel's ready for reassembly.

Top left, one way bearing's contact cleaned with a new application of one-way bearing oil. Top right, a few bearings to be packed with marine grease. The remainder gears and drag discs awaiting their respective lubrication coating.

Gears are all in excellent condition with no damages. Stock drag discs are also in excellent condition.

A typical rebuild layering lubrication in between parts installation.

Ready for more daily beating with minimal fuss.

This truly is a fire and forget reel. Strong alloy based body, simple mechanical functions, ball bearings loaded where it mattered reducing chances of mechanical failure of premature rust damages.

The difference before and after this service is that it's slightly tighter, smoother and creamier to crank. Drag take is also slightly smoother. It should serve the owner many more years to come.

Rusty anti-reverse on a Speedmaster

This Shimano Speedmaster's been pimped with speedy hybrid ceramic bearings and recently been used offshore for jigging without much fuss except for a weird rough and grinding feel while cranking.

A quick check by popping open the brake side cover reveals the spool support hybrid ceramics to be in excellent condition. Unscrewing the spool tension cap on the crank handle side also reveals a speedy clean hybrid ceramics. Pop the entire spool out of the body and gave it a few cranks to reveal that the roughness comes from within the inner works of the crank case.

Rusty one-way bearing (anti-reverse). Looks nasty, some damages done but not critical.

It didn't take long to discover that the one-way bearing's probably exposed to salt water for a tad too long. These bearings are generally lubed with light one-way bearing oil and if they are not well taken care of and regularly checked and serviced, this is the outcome.

Upon removing the phenolic resin cage, the roller pins should fall off quite easily. In this case, rust is holding them in the cage. Even the steel outer ring (steel ring in the crank case body) shows some serious damages are about to go deep.

Damage assessment can only be confirmed after thoroughly cleaning of rust and gunk collected over time. A combination of lubricant, rust remover and contact cleaners were used to flush out these nasty rusty bits to reveal an almost new bearing.

Almost new roller pins with signs of typical wear, phenolic cage is like new, crank shaft sleeve is almost new with slight signs of uneven wear.

The outer ring didn't like the rust that much as there was initial signs of deep corrosion if it were to be left un-serviced longer. Note the dark patchy stains on the left most grove.

Fitting the roller pins back into the phenolic cage was a tricky affair as it keeps dropping out and getting stuck onto greasy patches around the crank case. Grease is a big NO-NO for one-way bearings and has to be cleaned before assembly. Shown here fully lubed with one-way bearing oil.

Assembly was tricky with the tiny pins falling off the cage like rice choc chips. Upon assembly, ensure that there's proper lubrication with quality one-way bearing oil. Take extra care not to get any grease into the bearings. Give it a few rotation to fully lube the bearing and try it out on the crank to see if it does stop any reverse crank with little to no back play.

Good thing that this is an early detection, could have avoided some deep corrosion if it were to be serviced sooner. The bearings worked fine with no back play shows that the damages didn't affect it's function. With this discovery, prevention is key by packing in some salt water grease around the star drag screw system where I suspect salt water can seep through. Although not 100%, little TLC does go a long way for you to enjoy fishing with minimal interruption and prolonged lifespan of your gear, any gear really.

More speed for the Shimano Speedmaster

It's been quite a hectic month lately with very little time in between to scratch the itch of bent rods, tight lines, screaming drags, fighting fish, any fish. Nevertheless, a friend was kind enough to help me fill the little emptiness by handing me his seasoned Shimano Speedmaster (Curado for some) for a little bit of pimpin in search for more SPEED!

This calls for some quality hybrid ceramic bearings and some tuning.

The Shimano Speedmaster patiently waiting in the operation theater.

First to go in, brakes side spool support bearing, oiled with high speed bearing oil.

These hybrid ceramic bearings are of ABEC 7s and have very little tolerances for play. Notice that they are opened bearings with less friction. Perfect for a speedier spool tune up.

They usually come lightly lubed with their shields in. These came opened and already lubed with high speed bearing oil. If you are anal like me, you'll clean the bearings and lube them with your preferred oil/grease. Cleaning can be effectively done several ways either using grease solvent or contact cleaners and compressed air dried. I prefer to use an ultrasonic cleaner while soaking it in grease solvent for a thorough job, then add a few drops of high speed bearing oil in after drying.

Just a quick check on the handle crank shaft reveals plenty of gunk and dirt trapped. Just needs some basic cleaning and grease rub down to get it back to battle ready condition.

With the spool tensioner knob removed followed by the pentagon shaped retainer wire, out comes the standard bearings to be replaced by the speed tuned hybrid ceramic bearings.

If you notice that the crank shaft collected quite a bit of dirt over time, the original bearings were in excellent condition due to the fact that they are quite shielded from water exposure. The spool tensioner knob has and o-ring while on the brakes side, it's located quite deep into the casing and therefore running opened bearings are ok as long as you regularly oil it for longer life as much as retaining it's high speed spool characteristics.

The spool spins up to speed quite quickly and free spin noticeably longer than regular bearings. I will wait for a full catch report later then the owner has an opportunity to try out its new found speed.

Cheers for now and I'll see if there are any opportunities to go fish during this holiday.