Torsa with a locked up arm

This Shimano Torsa was in storage for a while before it was treated with some heavy weight lifting down at the south pacific recently. The Torsa gave a shock to the owner when we were already on the fishing vessel setting up our tackle for an entire week of heavy popping and jigging. The handle refused to crank no matter what drag setting was applied on the lever drag. It felt as though like something has jammed up the main gear therefore not being able to turn the handle at all.

After a few tries with line pulling out from the spool and randomly changing the lever drag settings, the handle was starting to slowly come undone. Weird thing yet is that the crank felt very heavy with  friction applied even when the lever drag was set to free spool.

Several cranks later, the friction seem to have disappeared and the Torsa was back to being functional again. Luckily, the reel was working fine throughout the entire week of heavy lifting and I'm tasked to rip this Torsa open for checks upon returning from the trip.

Shimano Torsa ready to be examined. No jams upon returning from the trip.

No signs of trouble with the crank case cover removed. Note the dry outer crank shaft bearing.

All dried up inside, never been serviced since new. Bearings are running very dry and dirty.

Dry and dirty. Note the crank shaft inner section with some rust stains and dried grease on the anti-reverse gear plate.

First sign of the jammed up handle incident. Red, a mixture of rust, grease and dirt filling up the inner crank shaft bearing. Blue, all dried up outer crank shaft bearing. All bearings were rolling rough with dirt, rust and dried up grease.

The culprit was easily identified. The inner crank shaft bearing sustained some rust over time from previous trips and was kept in storage for long periods allowing the rust to spread around the entire bearing. On top of that, the grease was already running dry while the rust seized the bearing together with the crank shaft. Hence the locked up handle at first, sticky later and free rotating after the gunk and dirt being mashed into the current mushy state.

Further dismantling of the entire reel didn't reveal anything alarming. It needs a proper clean up for sure.

More dried up bearings found, no dirt, still smooth. Ultra sonic cleaning in the works for most of these metal parts.

Heavy duty carbon fiber based drag disc permanently attached to the spool with some signs of wear from the pressure plate.

Spool shaft bearing cleaned and packed with new marine grease.

Another 2 more spool shaft bearing also cleaned and packed with marine grease for maximum protection and smoothness.

Spool shaft bearings loaded back into the spool.

Brushed and contact cleaned main and pinion gear with no serious signs of wear.

Crank shaft cleaned and some polishing needed to remove stubborn rust stains from the inner bearing seizure.

Contact cleaned and generously rubbed down with marine grease. Inner crank shaft bearing's fully revived, packed with new marine grease showed no signs of roughness from rust damage. Some seriously heavy duty bearings in the works here.

Pressure plate fitted back over the spool.

Main gear's fully lubed and ready to make contact with the pinion gear.

Outer crank shaft bearing's fully packed with marine grease before the handle's locked back in place.

Thoroughly cleaned and ready for action or storage.

The owner bought this reel new way back and used it several times for big game jigging and was rinsed and dried before storage after each trip. The assumption is that rinsing is enough to get rid of any salt residues off the reel before storage. What was not factored into the assumption is that there may be traces of salt inside the reel (not water proof design) which may cause rust build up as well as spreading into other areas of the reel even while in storage.

To ensure reels live long and prosper, they need to be checked or prepped when new as they infamously comes with factory (stingy) level of lubrication and protection. And for long periods of storage, give it a once over clean up and service so there's little to no chance of rust damage during storage.

Marfix for biggame jigging fix

In preparation for my big-game popping and jigging trip somewhere in the Pacific, I needed a heavy duty outfit for deep jigging in waters ranging from 100-200m deep using PE5 lines with jigs over 250g a pop. Target species are bottom dweller species like giant groupers as well as higher up the water column with a variety of tunas and occasional GTs. Then we have the ever present tax agents which will put your tackle through some serious bashing. These are the pacific sized sharks, bold enough to just cruise around the boat for anything and everything short of nibbling on the props as snacks.

Lever drag is the way to go and I chance upon this good deal for an overhead reel, a Marfix S5, compact enough for jigging, comes with a lever drag of mega stopping power and 600yds line capacity for PE5 braid. This will be paired with a stout PE6 jigging rod made for lifting heavy weights target species from the deep.

From the get-go, this reel gives you that 'don't mess with me' build quality that's made for serious punishment. After a few minutes having it in your hands, it's already delivered the first punch, telling you to better beef-da-fish-up or get off the ring. I can already tell that this set-up will be a back breaker.

Typically for me, I'd like to ensure the reel's battle ready with little to no chance of any failures during our trip out at the pacific where it'll be close to impossible for any proper fixes to be done living on board the fishing vessel the whole time.

Mess with me and I'll break your back!

No bullshit built. Firm click stops for lever drag adjustments. T-bar machined handles.

Mostly machined out of solid blocks of alloy, the reel's design concept focuses purely for big game battle as all parts are in big beefy blocks. Even the t-bar handle's machined without ball bearings as it will be too small to fit tiny bearings which isn't ideal for big game fighting forces. Another reduction in mechanical part failure. All it needs is a nicely greased up shaft for that smooth handle rotation.

Monster sized drag cork based disc permanently glued to the spool. Drag plate's a one-piece machined alloy designed to inflict major back pain!

Spool shaft is also a machined piece of corrosion resistant hardened steel. Many heavy duty bearings were used to support the spool and they need to be packed full of marine grease for maximum protection.

Crank case plate's one-piece machined alloy with minimal fanfare. Needs a thorough coating of marine grease.

Bolted onto the drag plate is the mechanical anti-reverse double toothed. Main gear's a machined hardened steel. Insufficient grease all round.

Main crank shaft through the housing without the need for ball bearing support, once again very focused on delivering the promise of big game battle reliability. Just needs thorough coating throughout the shaft acting as a seal from water intrusion.

I didn't manage to land much with this tackle as I was brought down to my knees a few times by pesky sharks and only managed to land a biggish grouper with it. This setup delivered as promise when it comes to inflicting back pain and never fail to impress for that mega stopping as well as cranking power.

I was happy that the reel preparation helped because a friend had issues with his loaned Marfix N4 (narrow spool) with the reel occasionally jamming up. I was also tasked to have that Marfix N4 checked and fix after the trip, so stay tuned for that.

Our group's catch report can be found here courtesy of Tackle Source.