Stella SW10000 loose crank

Here's new case file for my reel repairs and servicing. A very well seasoned Shimano Stella SW10000 that has battled countless GTs and other big bruisers off shore. As a result, somewhat, there is now an excessive amount of freeplay on the crank handle.

It's definitely not the anti-reverse (one-way) bearing failure as you can see from the video below, while cranking, I gripped the rotor preventing it from rotating. Upon opening the crank case, the issue was obvious on the main gear.

Loose screws. These screws usually come properly thread locked but I suspect this reel has battled far too many big bruisers resulting in loose screws on the main gear. If this is left as per, it will never be able to survive another battle and more severe and permanent damages will be produced inside the crank case.

All the screws were easily undone with little to no traces of thread locker in place. Odd. Also note some of the off coloured gear tooth on the upper right, typical wear and tear.

A thorough degreasing and contact cleaned is necessary for this rebuild in order for the thread locker to properly adhere to the threads. Only a thin coat of thread locker is needed to secure the gear to the shaft.

Note the thin coat of thread locker on screws, excess can be absorbed using paper towels.

As usual, the insides of the crank case is bone dry, possibly never been serviced the day it's out of the box fishing. A complete marine grease rub down as well as bearing checks is done as a routine maintenance. Nothing out of the ordinary here.

Nice rub down. Excellent inner condition with some signs of gear wear and tear but isn't a deal breaker.

Line roller has seen some serious battle with some light damages sustained possibly caused by binding washers. Thorough clean up and marine grease packed into the entire assembly to prevent water intrusion. Bearings are also in excellent condition.

Early detection of a loose crank handle is key to preventing gear failure. Luckily, this is in between off shore trips and a quick fix is done before it starts to really destroy the gears or any other internal parts.

Innovative Stella SW5000

This incident belongs to the archives of the x-files. It's got some innovative features that enables the use of a knob that belongs to a smaller category of reels. It's even got some fancy new stack of hardware in place as bearings.

Shimano spinning reel usually comes with either one of their size-A or size-B knobs depending on the size of the reels. Which also means, they come with different sized bearings for fitting.

This is a Shimano Stella SW5000 (2007) and they supposedly comes equipped with size-B knobs and bearings. Instead, we have a size-A knob fitted, owner complains that there's freeplay on the knob with suspicion of failed bearings. Line roller also needs some attention because it's decided to stop rolling.

First off, line roller. I seriously wonder what was being hauled that would result in melted metal bits fused and crumpled together. Unsolved mystery this is.

The horror unfolds. Top aluminum cover (left) for the line roller assembly looks like it's been corroded with signs of heavy pitting. Right red, that's metal fused together! Green being new replacement line roller.

With such a nasty damage done to the line roller, I had to check if the drag's ok. Surprisingly, it's perfectly fine and just needs a quick clean up and a new layer of drag grease.

No melting, no signs of brutal fish drag that connects to the molten line roller.

Drag clicker under the spool is messed up with water and gunk. A simple clean up and lube up is all it needs to hit the water clicking again.

Filthy drag clicker needs a shower!

We now look at the mother of all innovation. There was quite a bit of wobble with some binding when spinning the knob.

Split rings (red) to fill the space as shaft extension between the shaft and the screw for the bearing to run on. Shims (orange) used in place of a bearing (closer to crank side) because there are no bearings made in this dimension.

So, how do you fit a size-A knob with smaller and shorter mounting shaft into a bigger size-B bigger and longer mounting knob shaft? You fill the gap creatively with split rings and shim spacers. There are no bearings made in this small dimension and this is as good as having a fixed, non spinning knob into the Stella. Funny enough, the line roller melted with a proper functioning bearings while this spins with some binding. There are no two ways around this but to replace the size-A knob with a proper size-B knob.

While I'm at it, the insides look battle worn and can't help but to give it a nice clean up and marine grease rub down.

At first, I was shocked to see split rings and shims in this battle worn Stella but it surely made me laugh at how innovative of a solution this was. Where there's a will there's a way they say.