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.