avet sx rebuild

avet sx rebuild

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avet sx rebuild - 25 October 2006 12:31:35

Alan Tani

Posts: 183
Joined: 15 May 2006
From: saratoga, california, usa
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i've got photos of several avets that i'm going to post. i will start with the sx tear down because it's the one that i took a complete set of photos for. go to the avet website for schematics. you can also call them for any parts that you might need. the tear down on these reels is one of the most simple lever drag tear downs i know.

a local kid brought this reel over. it was fine. he was just looking for a little more drag.

pulling the right side plate off takes only two screws (key #31).

remove the right side plate and spool as a unit, then set it aside. let's take a look inside. the most common avet problem in the last half dozen reels i worked on was a stuck clicker assembly. this one is fine. if your's is stuck, drop a little corrosion x on it from both sides and work it, or let it soak. then slap some grease on top.

the screws (key #56) of the reel seat of this particular reel were already greased. check your reel, because that may not always be the case.

now to the guts of the reel. remove the preset knob and spring (key #'s 41 and 42). you'll have to hold the spool shaft on the other side. leave the lever exactly where it is and don't move it.

it comes apart pretty easily at this point. um, this is good and bad. for the photo, i've put the spool shaft back together so that you can see the bellevilles (key #5), the pusher bushing (key #6), the left spool bearing (key #7), the spool tube or bearing sleeve (key #8), the right spool bearing (key #14), two spool washers (key #16) with a spool spring (key #15) in between, and the brake bearing (key #17). note that i've already changed the configuration of the belleville washers from "()()" to "(())".

now, on to the drag washer. this one's clean as a whistle, front ....

.... and back.

i've applied a thick coat of shimano drag grease to the inside of the spool and to both sides of the drag washer. the purpose is to protect these surfaces from salt water intrusion. apply enough grease to prevent water from getting in between the drag washer and the spool.

now wipe all the excess grease. and i mean all of it! when you're done, you should be able to look at a greased washer and a dry washer and not be able to tell the difference.

lube the bearings with corrosion x. i've noted that some of the bearings have shields and some are open. either way is fine.

now put it all back together again

slide the spool shaft back through the side plate, hold the spool shaft on the left side and re-install the preset knob.

grease the screw holes, put everything back together.....

.... and watch it spin!

now, you will recall that this reel was brought to me because the owner wanted a little more drag range. to acomplish this, i changed the belleville configuration from "()()" to "(())". the result was interesting. with every click of the knob, the drag increased predictably, going from 2.5 pounds, to 4, to 6, then 8, 10, 12, then it jumped to 15 and then to 18 before i finally lost freespool. yup, 18 pounds of drag and i still had 45 seconds freespool!

the problem was that at 10 pounds of drag, i started noticing a lateral load on the right side plate bearing. the handle became increasingly difficult to crank. so from a practical point of view, 10 pounds is still the maximum drag setting that you can use. come to think of it, i should probably get this reel back and changed out the bellevilles again. there's no point in having anything more than 10 pounds of drag at strike. i'm sure the engineers at avet had already thought this through. still, it was fun to do, even just this once!

nice reel, but it holds some surprises. more on that later....

Post #: 1

RE: avet sx rebuild - 25 October 2006 12:34:13

Alan Tani

Posts: 183
Joined: 15 May 2006
From: saratoga, california, usa
Status: offline

ok, here goes the editorial part.

i will start out by saying that these are tough little reels. you are about to see some pretty ugly stuff. remember while you are looking at these photos, that all of these reels had good to excellent freespool. they also all had good to excellent drag. well, one reel had a sticky drag, but it would have still caught fish. so i'm going to show you the photos and make a few explanations. then i'm going to say what i like about the reel, then what i do not like, and then i'm going to duck out for a little bit while the fur flies! i know these are very popular reels. that's why it's taken me so long to work up the courage to write this post. so here goes.....

so a guys sends me six avets just before christmas. ok, fine, i don't get many of these (this is a good thing). i've never written an avet rebuild post so i grab my camera and i take a shot of the reels....

i open up the first reel and i'm horrified! here was the working side of the drag washer....

but this is what i found underneath. we'll call this reel #1

i called avet and they said to just clean it and reinstall it. so i cleaned it....

but decided to order new washers....

and some grease from cal sheets.

here's reel #2 with drag washer that's clean as a whistle.

here's reel #3 with a stuck clicker and minimal salt water corrosion in the drag.

here's reel #4 with extensive salt water intrusion .

here's reel #5 with moderate salt water intrusion

and here's the jx, in perfect condition

the reels were all rebuilt with no change in bellville configuration. the first three mxj's had drag washers that were greased with shimano drag grease and all three delivered 9 pound of drag at strike before losing freespool. the last two mxj's and the jx were rebuilt with cal's drag grease. the two mxj's delivered 9 pound of drag at strike before losing freespool. the jx delivered 12 pound of drag at strike.

so here's what i like. i like the open design of the avet drag chamber. without a spool cap to cover the drag chamber, yes water will get in, but it will also get out. sure, a cap on the drag chamber will keep small amounts of water out. but if water gets in, it's trapped. that's the main and fatal problem with the penn 975 lever drag.

i don't like the fact that avet uses a dry drag washer. i saw no loss of drag range in these six reels with grease on the drag washers. and i'm certain no one would disagree that grease would stop the corrosion dead in it's tracks. it's my opinion that a grease drag is a good thing. either shimano or cal's drag grease should work just fine.

so now that everyone knows how to tear down and rebuild these reels, i have a question.....

what's in your avet?

(in reply to Alan Tani)

Post #: 2

RE: avet sx rebuild - 25 October 2006 12:40:06

Alan Tani

Posts: 183
Joined: 15 May 2006
From: saratoga, california, usa
Status: offline

quote:

Fluka Brasi - 3/9/2006 8:57 AM

I have had an SX for about 3 years. After about 4 months of "weekend" use, I found similar saltwater intrusion and corrosion problems that you show. I even had one of the bearings break apart (that's really how I found the problem). I ordered new bearings direct from avet and they sent them no charge. I noticed the new ones were not shielded, while the original ones were (I wonder if they had problems with this). I still notice intrusion on the drag washer when I tear it down every year. Gonna try the drag grease this year.

Question: I was suprised that AVET recommends submersing the entire reel in fresh water and turning the handle to clean it. I realize that fresh water is better than salt water, but I would still think that, since the reel is not sealed, this would be detrimental if water got trapped in there (not all stainless is "corrosion proof", especially parts that wear). Your thoughts? Also, any recommendations whether the reel should be in strike or freespool when rinsing?

and

quote:

So what do you think Alan, about soaking the entire reel in fresh water after use,good idea or bad idea ?

my opinion? bad idea. there is a deep space inside the spool. it is guarded only by the two spool bearings. if water gets past the bearings, it will sit in that happy space, seep back out and foul the spool bearings. and then there's the issue of water creeping under the drag washer. you've already seen what happens there.

this speaks to the basic issue of maintenance. look, guys. no one is perfect. i have reels stacked one on top of the other in the garage. i think they were all rinsed after their last fishing trip, but a crewman could have missed a few, and so could i. and i don't know if they are in gear or out, drags clamped down or backed off. that's simply the reality of it all. when i get home after a long day on the water, i'm beat to a pulp and i may just crash out and worry about stuff tomorrow. hey, we've all been there.

so what i do is this. at the very beginning, i grease and lube every crack and crevice where water might stick. i basically water proof all the reels ahead of time. after a day of fishing, i hose them down with fresh water, then maybe i towel dry them, or blow out the excess moisture with compressed air, or maybe i just pile the rods and reels in the corner of the garage, dripping wet, then pop open a beer, and pass out. and because they've been greased up ahead of time, i can slack off a little and not pay the price in lost fish later.

i don't know what your fishing conditions are like, but a good day out here is 6-8 feet every 10-14 seconds with a 2 foot chop and 15 knots of wind. forget about fishing in a t-shirt. that's why northern california reels get so trashed so quickly.

(in reply to Alan Tani)

Post #: 3

RE: avet sx rebuild - 30 October 2006 19:58:03

Andy Woodford

Posts: 1527
Joined: 5 June 2003
From: NOR
Status: offline

As ever Alan, a great post.

Thanks

Andy

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RE: avet sx rebuild - 30 October 2006 20:54:07

Honsu Chin

Posts: 537
Joined: 20 June 2004
From: Leeming, Perth, WA
Status: offline

Wicked....now I can service and even soup up my SX with confidence.

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Post #: 5

RE: avet sx rebuild - 31 October 2006 3:23:16

Alan Tani

Posts: 183
Joined: 15 May 2006
From: saratoga, california, usa
Status: offline

a friend of mine is send me an mxj 4.5:1. on three separate occasions, he was fighting a fish and the reel suddenly backlashed on him. he didn't touch the lever, and he's no idiot around reels. so for arguement's sake, let's leave operator error out of the equation. i've been fiddling around with this reel for the last week and was finally able to re-create the problem. then i found what i THINK to be the cause. here's the reel.....

i backed off the preset knob and noticed that it was very loose.

i taped an bamboo skewer to the knob and wobbled it back and forth so that you can see the amount of play in the threads.

it may not seem like much in the photo, but when you actually fiddle with it by hand, the amount of play seems like WAY too much.

so i think what happened is that the preset knob actually "slipped" one set of threads under pressure. it is definitely an intermittant problem. i ordered a new spool shaft and a new preset knob. we will see if this fixes the problem. anyone ever have this problem before? alan

(in reply to Honsu Chin)

Post #: 6

RE: avet sx rebuild - 4 November 2006 16:22:59

Ed Olkowski

Posts: 745
Joined: 5 June 2003
From: Dawesville, Western Australia
Status: offline

Hi Alan. Just a quick question I have an Avet LX 4.1 I use for bottom fishing with 30 lb Fireline. It's a great reel as is but I think it would be a little more comfortable to use with a different handle. I have not found anyone that makes a after market handle like the offset ones you have on your gear. Any ideas? I will be in the states visiting my family in Florida in a few weeks was hoping to find something then.

Cheers Ed

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Post #: 7

RE: avet sx rebuild - 5 November 2006 11:03:47

Alan Tani

Posts: 183
Joined: 15 May 2006
From: saratoga, california, usa
Status: offline

ed, you're gonna love this! check out the handle grip for either the avet 4/0 or the avet 5/0. if you have an older style handle that is similar (not the new rubber one), then these larger avet handles will fit perfectly. for the "smaller" avet 4/0 handle you need to order a handle (part # exw402-85) and a lock screw nut (#exw402-86). my preference is actually the 5/0 handle grip. yes, even on the smallest of avet reels!!!!! the larger 5/0 handle is part #ex502-87 and the lock screw nut is ex502-88.

don't suppose you're coming through san francisco......

(in reply to Ed Olkowski)

Post #: 8

RE: avet sx rebuild - 5 November 2006 18:18:24

Ed Olkowski

Posts: 745
Joined: 5 June 2003
From: Dawesville, Western Australia
Status: offline

quote:

Don't suppose you're coming through San Francisco

As a matter of fact I will be traveling through San Francisco but with a tight schedule. I think I will only have time to make my connecting flight to Jacksonville and that would be a disaster missing that.

I have tickets to a Jimmy Buffet concert in Tampa the next day.

I would say I have the older version as I have a metal hand grip. I did check the Avet web site a while back but they didn’t list any other replacement handle than the original.

(Click Image for full size)

Attachment (1)

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Post #: 9

RE: avet sx rebuild - 5 November 2006 19:27:42

Stuart Arrowsmith

Posts: 500
Joined: 5 June 2003
From: Perth, Western Australia
Status: offline

EEERM is anyone able to tell me why all of alans pics show up as a little square with a cross through it

cheers
mrbean

(in reply to Ed Olkowski)

Post #: 10

RE: avet sx rebuild - 5 November 2006 19:43:11

Mick Barson

Posts: 4405
Joined: 27 July 2003
From: Around the corner, Western Australia
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Yeah i think cos Alan had them linked to a site that has since shut shop, bit like a posty trying to deleiver a letter but the address isnt there.......goes into dead letter box, Al's pics are floating in cyberspace.

He will sort it out Beany

as per post Photos have gone

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Post #: 11

RE: avet sx rebuild - 5 November 2006 20:23:19

John Hoye

Posts: 559
Joined: 5 June 2003
From: Darling Ranges, Western Australia
Status: offline

I think I will only have time to make my connecting flight to Jacksonville and that would be a disaster missing that.

I have tickets to a Jimmy Buffet concert in Tampa the next day.

Jacksonville, is that near Margaritaville?

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RE: avet sx rebuild - 5 November 2006 20:35:16

Stuart Arrowsmith

Posts: 500
Joined: 5 June 2003
From: Perth, Western Australia
Status: offline

thanks mate,good to see the Barsons have a soft side and ain't as tough as they used to be

cheers
mrbean

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Post #: 13

RE: avet sx rebuild - 5 November 2006 21:38:54

Ed Olkowski

Posts: 745
Joined: 5 June 2003
From: Dawesville, Western Australia
Status: offline

quote:

Jacksonville, is that near Margaritaville

I'll check that on the coconut telegraph.

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Post #: 14

RE: avet sx rebuild - 15 November 2006 16:37:03

Mike Wilson

Posts: 14
Joined: 21 October 2006
Status: offline

hi alan thanx for the sx info, a quick question if i was to remove one belleville wash would this degrease the overall drag pressure so i can srcew up the preset and attain drag settings that are lower overall, i need to fish lower line classes to do this i need a greater range of light drag, is this the way to go?

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Post #: 15