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.