I bought an Okuma Helios SX spinning reel in February. When I bought it it was really smooth, felt like a breeze could have turned the handle. Throughout the season it was used heavily and all the regular maintance was done monthly. I noticed as the season went on the handle was getting heavier. Now that I have some time I wanna tear it down and see what is going on with it but I don't know my way around spinning reel internals. Where and what should I look for to make this reel smooth again and the handle lighter?

You should be Looking for local professional first if can not locate one then DVT might be able to help. I don’t really recommend newbie to tear apart spinning reel, a lot of thing can go wrong. The heavy handle might mean old grease, bearing need flushing,  main shaft on rusted pinion gear, etc. There are so many loose parts in spinning reel compare to bait caster. 

I didn’t mean you cannot, but if it were me I would learn with something cheap first.

If you have had it less than a year, I would contact Okuma and see if they can repair it under warranty.  

 

I have sent them a reel in the past and they did everything they could to make it right. But after 2 attempts and 3 different reels, I decided to return it.  Their service was great though but the reel itself just had some issues that couldn't be fixed. 

44 minutes ago, FishTank said:

If you have had it less than a year, I would contact Okuma and see if they can repair it under warranty.  

 

I have sent them a reel in the past and they did everything they could to make it right. But after 2 attempts and 3 different reels, I decided to return it.  Their service was great though but the reel itself just had some issues that couldn't be fixed. 

I never thought to contact Okuma thank you

 

Is Okuma still a site sponsor?