Balls buster GTs

Previously, 2 of the bearing sizes were slightly off the dimension I ordered, 0.5mm thinner, numbnut who took my order discovered that they didn't have stocks for the exact ones I wanted and decided to just dump in the closest one found and shipped it to me without notifying me. Just great!

 

Exotic pimping stuff. Full ceramic ZrO2 bearings.

Beyond the thickness issue which can easily be shimmed up to reach my desired thickness, the bearings weren't of any ABEC standards and the radial and axial free play was rather alarming and you can visibly see and feel it's wobble as I rotate them using my fingers.

I needed 2.5mm and 3mm thick bearings and this is what the numbnut sent me.

I know for sure with such ill fitting specifications, I'm threading dangerous waters field testing them on the main gears as it is the point where there will be heavy torque loading and twisting from the handles. Theory won't mean anything unless I try them out and push it beyond it's limit to develop products that suits angler's needs and application.

Hybrid Ceramic Bearings for the pinion shaft and more.

For this particular Shimano 4000 sized reel, due to the 'wrong' sized bearing sent to me, I've decided to test the slightly thinner bearings on isolation to see if it still works with the use of shim fitment. Only 2 full ceramics were used on the main gear support (handle crank shaft) and I didn't have sufficient shims to tune it like a glove fit, hence a bit more than usual free play. The remainder bearings were hybrid ceramics (pictured), which was previously pimped out, field tested and abused hauling giant cats & gars in Thailand (up coming posts to show case some of the giants).

There was wobble and free play while cranking, slightly more than the original condition, yet I've decided to give it a go even with an inkling that something might go wrong. The only way to find out is to field test it and give it the abuse it deserves.

We rented a GT pond for 3 hours, shared among 4 anglers, and all 4 of us started with top water lures. Weird thing is that the locals insists that all of us must cast at the same time as the GTs were very picky to take lures only at the beginning of any session. They insist that we get everything ready so much so that we have to cast upon stepping into the pond. We thought they were just kidding, we entered the pond and took our time to tie the lures while standing next to the pond. The locals waited and hurried us, some GTs were already doing a double take, flashing their colour at us while swimming past.

All 4 of us casted, popped and reeled without a hint of bite. After 2-3 tries, the locals figured they weren't getting any hook-ups and quickly switched to bait instead. My buddy and I stuck to lure, tried a variety of lures. Hours went by, not a single bite no matter how we work the lures, not that we are experts, but enough to get some desired action out of them. The baiters hook up one after another, told us to just switch to bait as the fish in the pond's too smart and seasoned. We caved in and became master baiters ourselves as we were running out of time.

Only after 2-3 casts, it was fish-on. A big fat juicy grouper made sure to give my pimped reel a few good power spurts to break in the ceramic bearings. Power cranks and moderate pace lifting landed this grouper without breaking a sweat. Tasty grouper goes back into the pond, catch and release.

On my next few casts, a juvenile GT snapped up my bait and made a run for it. The GT made my reel scream and was determined not to be landed without giving it all. Midway through several minutes of fight, high speed cranks and hard lifts, my reel started to scream to a different tune as I could feel there was more and more free play as I crank. It started to scream louder and I heard popping, crushing noise and felt it through the handles. The locals looked perplexed, what's with the alien noise that's coming out of my reel? Told them, testing new products and that's the not so sweet sound of busted bearings & exploded balls!

The GT was still out partying hard as I cranked slowly, nursing the reel as to not damage anything else. The only option I have left is to let the GT tire itself out. Damn GT was only half the size my buddy hooked up earlier and it busted my balls, metaphorically and literally for the ceramics.

Exploded outer races, crushed ceramic balls, crumpled shims!

The cause of this? Simple, wrong sized bearings loosely fit in with excessive radial and axial play that resulted in premature bearing failure. It was torque loaded from the handle to the gear at various cranking angles beyond it's operating parameters. Therefore the spectacular screaming explosion and crushed balls.

Tiny balls, busted tiny balls.

Crushed balls. Don't let this be yours!

Good thing is that this happened as I partly expected it to and not during a long off shore excursion. More tests needed to ensure that these bearings are spec'ed to be battle ready. I've completed several good field testing sessions of hybrid ceramics on this 4000 and 2500 sized reel. Next up would be to test using properly sized and fitment of ABEC 7 hybrid ceramics on a 6000 sized reel, watch this space!

It's time for me to bust some balls off the numbnut who sent me these wrong bearings!

Exotic stuff tested at the exotic pond and more.

My samples of 'exotic stuff' ordered from an OEM manufacturer arrived and it's time to pimp some of my reels to be tested and abuse. They aren't the regular Si3N4 stuff but the slightly frugal but full ZrO2 ceramic bearings with teflon cages and are all open as they are virtually corrosion resistant. These fellas are of various quality grades as they are meant to be tested before they are ready for real world battles.

A variety of sizes based on what I feel would be critical bearings on a spinning reel to mostly eliminate corrosion, increased rolling performance, and increased feel. I ordered them dry and I've applied a thin layer of bearing oil to reduce the dry coarseness feel, hence the red tint.

2 of the bearing sizes were slightly off the dimension I ordered, 0.5mm thinner, numbnut who took my order discovered that they didn't have stocks for the exact ones I wanted and decided to just dump in the closest one found. More about this in the next explosive post.

Out goes the hybrid ceramics and in goes full ceramics onto the main shaft support!

This will be the first stage of test on areas where there's medium amounts of straight torque loading with little to no angular loading to the bearings as it is also supported by the anti-reverse (one-way bearing). Unlike the main gear shaft where the connection to the handle creates a massive amount of torque as well as angular loads due to rotational cranking force will require higher grade or specification of bearings with little play to take the abuse.

The bottom end of the X-Ship bearing also swapped into full ceramics.

Both full ceramics in place.

After my reel's been pimped, it's time to field test the full ceramics at Rawang's Exotic pond. The reel free spins a lot faster with less resistance and you can literally feel the full ceramic balls rolling as it was only lightly oiled compared to conventional bearings with seals to keep it's grease in for maximum protection.

Big pacu landed with quite a unique fighting signature compared to the regular cats there.

Powerdunk was the lure of the day, note the busted split rings up front!

A week later, I needed more tests on the bearings as it didn't register much abuse from Exotic's tests. I decided to head out to Banting's Siakap pond as the siakaps there are generally less fussy with lures and gives me more opportunity to have a better gauge of the bearings.

First hook up without much fuss using IMA's Sasuke steadily reeled in.

Many more hook ups as the siakaps weren't picky at all with DUO's Ryuki tempting twitches.

Next up on DUO's Perakko reeled fast with explosive strikes from this hungry siakap.

There were just too many hook ups at Banting's siakap pond and I had to resort to using only just 1 tiny hook, debarbed and let the siakap throw them out easily.

All in all, a decent test with an improved reel feel and spinning performance with the full ceramics on the main shaft. I will continue to field test this reel with occasional servicing to check it's internal for any wear and tear.

Next test would be interesting as I will be testing the full ceramics on the main gear for a full on abuse of cranking vs some pond GTs. Stay tuned.

Hybrid Ceramics vs The Giant Cats and Flying Barras..

Tearing down and tuning the Daiwa Emeraldas 2506 INF prompted me to reflect on the pimping process done to both my Shimano spinning reels in preparation for the 2 days of battle in Thailand at Boon Mar & IT Lake Monster.

I've been fishing with my Shimano Rarenium 2500 Ci4 for a while and it's a decently made reel compared to the likes of Twinpower, Vanquish or Stella. You pay for what you get with Shimano reels and they are generally built to serve you well, durable and hassle free. Sometimes the itch gets to you and you wonder if you can do a better job at making the reel better in terms of cranking performance, smoothness and durability by upgrading its bearings/bushings to Hybrid Ceramic Bearings or tuning the handling feel to your liking.

And then there is this occasional but persistent itch that gets you wanting more, pimping the reel with extra bearing counts & exclusive parts that are only found in a Stella. For me, it's a bit of both but more so to have a reel that lasts as long as I can fish. Past experience with budget reels taught me to take precaution with certain parts of the reel that gets most abuse or water intrusion that causes bearings, bushings or reel failure altogether.

Hybrid Ceramic Bearings vs bushings

So here's what I did to both my Shimano Rarenium 2500 Ci4 and Shimano Stradic 4000 FJ in preparation to battle the monsters in Thailand.

Teflon bushings are ok but they can never outlast bearings when it comes to wear and tear. Better still, Hybrid Ceramic Bearings to replace them all for an even longer lasting reel. Reel longevity also depends on how well you take care or service your reels, I strip mine apart to be cleaned and checked every 2-3 outings.

Stainless steel bearings (left) vs Hybrid Ceramic Bearings (right). Close up reveals ceramic balls (charcoal black) on stainless steel races, hence 'Hybrid' and these are the commonly used Si3N4 material.

Bushing out, Hybrid Ceramic in!

Line roller bearings get the most water intrusion that causes
rust and bearing failures over time even with S-ARB or CRBB or HPCR.

Only a handful of Shimano spinning reels of this size offer double ball bearing supported worm gear shaft, namely the Vanquish and Stella. This part doesn't take much abuse but does give the tiny bit of overall creamy smoothness feel to the reel. Not all reels are created equal and there's quite a bit of free-play shaft sliding and can be tuned out almost entirely using micro shims as shown between the hybrid ceramic bearing and the shaft.

Main gear, Hybrid Ceramic Bearings with tuning shims.

More tuning shims for a perfect
gear mesh gap fitment tune up.

The main gear will be abused quite a bit with torque loading from cranking and it's vital that the gear mesh is optimally tuned with little axial and/or radial play when cranking with the use of high precision hybrid ceramic bearings and shim fitment.

Pawl bushing to be replaced with Hybrid Ceramic Bearings and Stella bushing.

Now this is where pimping gets a little tricky as some similar branded reels share a lot of common parts but with slight design tweaks and they fit a different reel. Note the original black bushing may look like a simple straight cylinder but the inside's tapered shape to fit the pawl like a glove without bearings. One option is to trim the bushing but risks damaging or cutting away too much. Another option is to get Stella parts as they share similar housing and pawl assembly. Not the white bushing has a flange and the original housing also comes with tapered edge.

Glove like fit!

Note how the pawl, bearing and bushing fits firmly into the housing, glove like fit.

Not pictured on this post, pinion gear bearings also swapped out with Hybrid Ceramic Bearings for a full on assault battle against the giants.

Bangkok, here we come!

We made prior arrangement with our Thai fishing guide AhBoy to pick us up from the airport to head straight to Boon Mar for our first day of battle with Barramundis.

When we arrived around the fish farm, not a paid fishing pond, we were awestruck by the amount of ponds stretching as far as our eyes could see. Some workers were seen on bicycles gesturing us in further and it took us a while to locate the actual pond allocated to us for that day. I managed to capture just a fraction of what was in store for us on video. We were literally greeted with explosive lure take ups every 2 to 3 casts for the entire 3 hours. The barras stocked there were very nicely sized of over 7kgs and they were all spirited airborne fighters.

Probably one of the smaller ones but boy do they put up some serious fights.

The next day, we got up early to take on monsters at the IT Lake Monster. Here's a video of what I managed to capture, lure take ups were tricky and needs a lot of hard work but once they take the lure, just be ready for a persistent bull like run from these giant amazonian catfish.

Battles for the day, nothing the Shimano Stradic 4000 FJ with Hybrid Ceramic Bearings can't take.

Battle heroes for both days at Boon Mar & IT Lake Monster.

All in all, an excellent 2 days of fishing, excellent field testing of the Hybrid Ceramic Bearings. I'd say the Hybrid Ceramic Bearings holds itself well against the giants on pure performance and only time will tell on durability and they are definitely a worthy pimp up for a start.

Here's a glimpse at what's to come next, some 'exotic stuff' in the pipeline. yum yum!

Exotic stuff!

Busted bushing, melted bits, stuck line rollers on a buddy's Emeraldas2506 INF

I've been fishing with a buddy of mine over the past 6 months and we've been hauling quite a bit of regular sized cats and barras in our local paid ponds. He was using his first love, the super smooth Daiwa Emeraldas 2506 INF while I was on Shimano spinners all throughout.

Then comes our not so recent trip to Boon Mar Thailand where we were welcomed by decently sized barras (avg 7kgs and up) that takes on any lures thrown to them with all their might and spirited acrobatic jumps. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience no doubt, but then comes the aftermath, he discovered that the Emeraldas feels weird with excessive play and clicking sensation while cranking the handles without line load, spool and rotor wobbles too. Not the regular breaking in looseness you usually expect but worrying wobbles and excessive free play.

He hands me the reel for a check up. I happily complied of course and quickly got to work.

Drag pressure disc & spool hub

First to be taken apart, damage count #1, the drag pressure disc, signs of excessive force binding damages can be seen around the edges of the rectangular hole. Damages can be seen on the spool hub shaft. Not a reel breaker but a good lesson learned to not use a squid reel to reel in cats or fighter barras.

Spool housing, line lay tuning shim, alien bits & spool hub retainer ring wire

Then comes the shocker. The spool was stuck on the floating shaft, odd that it should just slide out with just a few gentle wiggle.  I had no choice but the yank out the spool forcefully and as a result, the retainer ring wire was bent (pictured far right). No biggie as it was easily bent back into shape.

There was this unknown fibrous molten bits stuck at the base of the spool between the shims, I suspect this could be the line lay tuning shims as it was later discovered that the line lay shape became tapered towards the front. It was so badly damaged that it bonded onto the alloy base of the spool and worse of all, jammed up in between the alloy bushing, spool hub shaft and the spool housing. This is bad. More molten fiber was yanked out around the bushing and after several attempts trying to knock the bushing out, inaccessible by bearing pullers, it finally dislodges with some free play and dropped out.

Friction wear on spool housing and badly damaged bushing

Damage count #2. Spool housing base shows signs of forced friction wear with burrs sticking out of it's edges and the bushing's worn out creating friction instead. The bushing's worn so bad that it cannot even fit into the spool hub shaft anymore.

The base of the spool housing needed some serious fix with a dremel tool grinding off the burrs and polished off the unknown fiber bonded bits around. Damages in housing where the bushing sits was minimal therefore still not a reel breaker.

Bushing out, Hybrid Ceramics in. Pimped!

The bushing was beyond repair and couldn't even slot into the spool hub shaft. Out goes the bushing, in goes a new ceramic hybrid ball bearing which will outlast any steel based bearings out there with excellent corrosion resistant properties.

With the new ceramic hybrid ball bearing in, a quick test reveals that the spool wobble was now almost gone with a slight wiggle due to some wear on the spool housing itself.

Rotor & floating shaft's fine.

Next up, the rotor, looks good, nothing out of the ordinary. The floating shaft too. No signs of wear, which I believe is due to it being made out of high tensile steel, tough stuff.

Dry main gear, needs some TLC grease coating.

The main gear and internal bits are a tad dry and without grease protection, a few brush stroke of teflon grease is all it needs. Few cranks on the handle to know that there's too much sliding free play for the main gear between the bearings. Easily tuned and fixed with some ultra thin stainless steel or brass shims with some prior experience on gear mesh tuning during my RC days put to good use here.

Some gearing abuse wear and metal shaving bits. Needs cleaning and grease reapplication.

Damage count #3. Upon removing the main gear to clean up the used grease, there were signs of more than usual wear and some worrying metal shaving bits found. This could be due to cat cranking abuse and possibly inappropriate gear mesh free play as stated above.

Pinion gear shaft wear. Some abuse aftermath.

Out comes the pinion gear shaft. Some signs of wear,  slightly more than expected probably due to barras and cats abuse. Pictured, #1 is supported by the one-way (anti-reverse) bearing shaft, #2 being supported by a stainless steel ball bearing while the far right tip (past the gears) is being supported by a thin bushing which I believe is teflon or some other materials. This is where Shimano makes a difference with some of it's reel designs with another ball bearing, they call it their 'x-ship' system.

Anti reverse clutch (one way needle bearings), a little lose and abused. Cleaned and new oil needed.

Upon closer inspection around the one-way bearing (anti-reverse clutch) housing, #1 being the one-way bearing shaft, #2 being the white plastic needle bearing housing, excessive abuse resulted in more than usual wear and tear with some free play wobble and also slight inefficient anti-reverse stopping with a slight back play before stopping. This is the cause for the rotor wobble, not exactly a reel breaker that starts to grind against the body, but manageable so long as it's not being used to haul big cats or feisty fights.

The shaft and housing's been removed, cleaned and lightly lubed with special one-way bearing oil (not grease) and the anti-reverse stop seems to have improved slightly.

Pimp it up! No love for line roller bushings, Hot love for Hybrid Ceramic Bearings!

Finally, a quick check on the line roller reveals plenty of gunk jammed in preventing the roller to spin properly causing occasional line twists and fried bihun. Easily fixed by replacing the brass+plastic bushing with a ceramic hybrid ball bearing and some micro shims to fine tune the bearing placement to a glove like fit.

This seems to be the spot that gets most water intrusion and best to have long lasting bearings like ceramic hybrids to avoid premature failures.

All in all, reel's been serviced, tuned and lightly pimped up with some nifty ceramic hybrid bearings. Buddy is happy again that the reel's revived.

On to the next battle!