Picked up a clean Curado DSV yesterday on a good deal. I had fished these before but had never torn into one and I was surprised to see the number of components. Everything from the spring clicker to the anti reverse is very different from reels I've worked on. Anyhow I found it interesting that the worm gear is turned down on these and was wondering why this isn't a more accepted practice? It would seem that turning the opening down would help reduce the amount of gunk getting in there. 

You mean why the opening of level wind guard isn't facing downward or inward? I thought about that also, and my guess is no matter which direction the opening is facing, there'll be some disadvantage.

 

If it faces downward, the line guide pawl and pawl cap would also face downward, increasing the height of a supposedly low-profile reel. I don't have a Curado DSV, but I guess since it's a big reel, this issue won't matter much. 

 

If it faces inward like the picture shows, it may seem like a good idea, but the water spilled from the spool and line would easily get into the worm gear during cast or any other high speed rotation. Also it'd be hard to do simple maintenance on the worm gear.

 

And it can't face upward for obvious reason, so finally, I guess they decided facing outward is the least of all evils. 

 

Yup, that is what I'm referring to. As far as the maintenance argument, on several of my reels where the pawl cap is facing outward, it still cant be removed without some disassembly. 

2 minutes ago, garroyo130 said:

Yup, that is what I'm referring to. As far as the maintenance argument, on several of my reels where the pawl cap is facing outward, it still cant be removed without some disassembly. 

 

Yeah that's true, but at least we can do some cleaning on the worm gear and reapply some grease/oil, right? 

Grease?.....don’t use grease on the level wind worm gear!

 I use CLP BreakFree.

Tom