Crusty Stella

Here's a look at a big game reel that's survived to fight another day. This Shimano 18000's battled some monster GTs, doggies, macks and speedy tunas. It's now due for some mid life service and maintenance. Sticky drags, noisy and rough cranks are some of the issues that needs to be sorted out.

Externally fine. Some tell tale signs of serious fishing's done with this reel.

Knob bearing's dried up to the point of being powdery, bearings are surprisingly still alive.

This reel comes equipped with stock carbon drags and it's been through helluva lot especially for the smaller ring sized top stack drags. The bottom stack petal shaped drags are super duty carbon discs and are still going strong, sturdy but dirty.

A quick look under the spool shows that the drag's been through some serious fights. Dried up gunk all over the system.

The top stack (smaller) drag's mostly disintegrated from powerful speedy fish runs. It's so thin that the effort to lift the carbon drag from the disc plates breaks it apart in many pieces. That's probably the cause for sticky drags.

Custom cut carbon drags to match original dimensions including thickness.

Bottom stack drags and disc plates cleaned. Newly cut carbon drags to replace disintegrated carbon drags.

This reel's been previously serviced elsewhere and there are signs of forced removal dings on the line roller itself. This is probably due to rusted out and jammed roller bearings.

Line roller grooves damaged, don't think salt water corrosion can do this kind of damage.

Dents all around the line roller groove. It's probably teeth marks from pliers trying to pry open the jammed bearings. A deal breaker kind of damage which will destroy your line.

Not only the bearing's are dried up and rough, the line roller shaft's lightly worn too. This will need parts to be shipped from Japan as replacement.

Another forced entry found around the anti-reverse system's cap screw. There's a deep gash on the cap which looks like tool slippage.

Anti-reverse bearing cap gash. Most likely from tool slippage. Luckily this is only an aesthetic damage.

Insides are dry.

All the grease in this crank case needs to be replaced as they have been properly used up.

Main gear's got some wear and tear signs even though it's a hardened alloy. Gear mesh is still fine, cranks smooth without back plays.

The entire crank case needs to be de-greased and contact cleaned to be ready for a new layer of marine grease for maximum protection.

New marine grease application around the entire crank case upon contact cleaned to ensure no mixture of incompatible grease.

Line roller and knob bearings took some serious beating, all dried up but very much alive. Just need to be ultrasonic cleaned in preparation for new packing of marine grease.

Salt water corrosion can be super damaging. Above, ultra hard chrome coating on the line roller assembly arm's all crusty and flaky. Bottom, upon removal of the corroded bits, there will be no more protection and hence the need to pack this crevice with marine grease.

Line roller assembly packed with redundant marine grease as a seal against salt water ingestion.

New packing of marine grease into the knob bearings for maximum protection and seal.

Well lubricated, awaiting new line roller guide to be replaced.

Top end reels need quite a bit of TLCs too as you can see that not only does the mechanical system take some serious beating, the entire reel needs to withstand salt water corrosion damages over long periods of time.

With proper care, regular checks and servicing done, this reel will be able to serve you many big battles for long periods of time.

Rarenium C3000 salt prep

In comes an underrated reel for salt prep, the super light and ultra reliable Rarenium series. Apart from salt prep, the owner wants to up the drag on this for salt water species fight. So here goes.

Trusty light but strong reel.

Standard knob bearings in the enclosed area and teflon bushing towards the regularly exposed area. Bearings are fine and just need a new pack of marine grease. Additional grease packed around the teflon bushing grease to act as a redundant seal.

Even though it's shielded in the knob, additional marine grease packed in and around the screw for that added protection.

Stock drag's are fine but starting to dry up. Custom cut carbon sheets to match stock dimensions.

Drag system degreased before applying a new layer of drag grease.

Line laying roller system's dry but smooth. New packing of marine grease to fill all available space within the system.

Stock factory grease application isn't something to die for, everything looks new too.

A new and generous layer of Shimano's heavy grease covered all internal surfaces to displace water.

Old drags out, sturdier carbon drags in. Newly salt prep ready for small reef or pelagic species battle.

A rather straight forward salt prep for a trusty reel. This reel will most likely be used to target small reef or pelagics and will probably serve the owner very well over long periods of time if it is well taken care off.

Vanquish salt prep

Here's another rather new reel preparation for salt water bashing. The reel in question is a Shimano Vanquish, a medium heavy spin setup mostly for fresh water fishing and also occasional salt water assault on reef species. My cousin didn't want to take any chances and would like to prepare this reel for long life operation as well as beefed up drag upgrades.

Limited edition which comes with some handle bling.

First thing that needs some beefing up would be the well worn stock drags.

Knob bearings are still in good condition as it hasn't been exposed to much salt water yet. Best is to clean them out and pack them full with marine grease for maximum protection.

Knob shaft cleaned, bearings packed, ready to be reinstalled into the factory bling knob.

Line roller bearing's quite dry too as it's been fished a bit fresh out of the box. Bearings need to be cleaned out and loaded in with marine grease.

Line roller assembly also needs to be stuffed full with marine grease as the Vanquish uses only 1 bearing hence more space in the assembly.

Packed to the brim to prevent water intrusion.

The insides are a little dry. Typical of a factory reel.

Note how dry the main gear is? The Vanquish doesn't have rubber seals on the body housing to shield the main gear bearings, make shift prevention would work fine as it will not be exposed to direct water spray.

Main gear's coated with Shimano's heavy grease. Main gear bearing's generously covered with the heavy grease too.

One-way bearing's a little dirty, degreased, contact cleaned and re-oiled with one-way bearing oil for stopping efficiency.

Well used stock drags replaced with custom cut carbon drags for overall stopping performance and smoothness.

Prepped, beef up drag and ready for fresh or salt water assault.

Stock drag's bagged and to be returned together with a battle ready Vanquish for some light jigging. Overall, a very nice reel only second best to the Stella, much more hand me down techs than expected for a reel at this price point.

The Stella 1000FE ultralight greatness

A cousin of mine was recently introduced to lure fishing and was knee deep into the Japanese luring industry. This is for his ultralight setup and the regular go-to reel for our application is no other than a Shimano Stella 1000FE. Regular spool as opposed to the newly launched shallow spool which is more for the Japanese finesse market.

The stock reel is good and ready for battle out of the box but there's always room for improvement and slight pimpin.

Before serious action, the handle's already been pimped up with ZIP's aluminum knob.

First thing to get some TLC. Line roller assembly. Dry out of the box.

Packed with marine grease as the reel will be used for salt water application too.

Shimano's drag good out of the box, it can be made slightly stronger, smoother and more durable.

The usual suspects, carbon fiber drag sheets.

Cut to measure carbon fibre drag discs.

Nicely lathered with drag grease and ready to be reinstalled into the spool.

The insides are dry and needs plenty of marine grease coating for redundant protection.

As you can tell, this is a fairly straight forward preparation without much need for any inspection. Just packing and coating all the surfaces with marine grease for that added longevity and protection. As for the drag, it's an upgrade that's hard to ignore as the stock drag is good, just a little weak on power and durability. With carbon fiber drag discs, smoothness and power is ensured on top of durability.

Metanium's jerky drag

The Shimano Metanium's been a trusty casting machine for me as it is very light, small and casts like a dream when properly tuned. The only thing that bothers me is the stock drag. It's jerky right from the beginning when new all throughout even with a variety of drag grease changes.

Next tests would be to replace the stock drag disc with carbon drags in the hopes that will eliminate the jerky drag takes.

Jerky drag soon to be replaced with custom cut carbon drag.

Carbon sheets in a variety of thickness. Thickness changes may affect the performance of the drag or even damage the reel when used incorrectly.

Custom cut to measure. A variety of dimensions to be tested with an aim to get a smooth drag take.

Oversized custom cut carbon drag vs stock drag disc. Some tests needed to decide what dimension works best.

Initial pull test reveals a slightly smoother drag force and should somewhat eliminate some of the jerkiness.

I'll check back in with some observation and findings when I've got some opportunity to put this reel through its paces.