Shimano TLD5 inspection, rebuild and conversion

[peguinpower]

Its pretty much SOP to crack open any new reel that goes through my garage

KABLAM!


Don't panic. I came prepared


Cursory inspection found very little corrosion. The outside threads of the frame screws had some salt, and the lever drag body was turning a little green. No pitting. Just surface reaction. I degreased the entire reel with white gas and a toothbrush. All the bearings were smooth and free spinning. Just to be sure, I soaked them in white gas and blew compressed air thru them using an RPM bearing blaster. The bearing blaster channels the air or any compressed cleaner thru the seals and drains them onthe other side. I re-oil with Tri-flow. Works good



I have really wanted one of these reels due to their graphite body



Titanium Drag Plate



and stainless gears




semi-sealed level drag design (great for kayak fishing) if you heavily grease the threads on the drag cover plate and the center hole, I think it will be waterproof to 2 feet



These days, I think only Accurate has reels with that kinda parts combo.

Johnny took pretty good care of this reel. It had a new original drag.



Given that this is almost 20 year old technology, I thought an upgrade would be in order.







I gave it a good coat of grease inside out and oiled all the bearings. I also took out the shields facing inside the reel and kept the shields facing out. That will give it some protection and also allow them to drain.



I checked freespool just to make sure that there was no binding. I recently read an article by reel designers regarding reel free spool. The article said extended free spool time can be designed into a reel by making the spool heavy. More mass equates to more inertia resulting into longer free spool. However, a light spool will be easier to start, ergo longer casts (specially casting light objects), and easier to stop (less dependence on cast control) resulting in less likelihood of bird nesting. You don't really want your spool to keep spinning when the lure has stopped pulling line. Does that makes sense? Anywho, let me know when you achieve 30 second flight times on your lure or chovie With everything else constant, a light spool won't free spool as much as a heavy spool. To each his own.

Off she goes tomorrow for spooling.



My new old 20# reel If this thing ever broke, I wonder if Shimano would still honor its life time warranty?

See you guys at Catapalooza!

/bing