So this one bantam is giving me a headache again. So I take the side plate off and then put it back on and the spool doesn’t want to turn. Took everything apart and it’s all in correctly. I put the side plate on and nothing. Then I put all brake blocks up in the locked position and the spool turns and everything is smooth as should be. If I go back to the 2 brakes up and 2 brakes down and put the side plate on, the spool wont turn easily at all. So then if I hold the reel on its side so the brakes flip forward and put the side plate on that way, it’ll turn smoothly as it should. It seems the brake blocks are getting pressed down when the side plate is going on or it’s at least interfering with the brakes and side plate. I have 3 other ‘18 bantams and I don’t have this issue and they look identical to this bantam so I can’t for the life of me figure out what is interfering with the spool and the brake blocks when the side plate is on .

Anyone ever have this issue?

Is it the cheap one you got from Japan?

It was one of the ones from Japan. It worked well last season and now it doesn’t. as an update, I tried the spool in all my other bantams and on a ‘20 Met and it was fine in all those reels. Put it back in this bantam and the issue continues. The side plates all look the same so I can’t figure out why this one somehow pins down the brake blocks (if it is) but it has to be the side plate I’m guessing at this point.

13 minutes ago, Micro Module Police said:

Is it the cheap one you got from Japan?

And no…. That one has been solid. If it was that one then I wouldn’t be so annoyed :)

Have you tried swapping around the spools from each of the reels? That will diagnose if the spool or the side plate is the issue.

Also, I assume when you’re pulling them apart and putting them back together that you’re backing the spool tension knob entirely off. If you have spool tension it will push the spool out from the handle side frame as you’re seating the side plate and you risk binding it up.

1 minute ago, casts_by_fly said:

Have you tried swapping around the spools from each of the reels? That will diagnose if the spool or the side plate is the issue.

Also, I assume when you’re pulling them apart and putting them back together that you’re backing the spool tension knob entirely off. If you have spool tension it will push the spool out from the handle side frame as you’re seating the side plate and you risk binding it up.

Yeah. It isn’t the spool. It works in my 3 other bantams. It must be the side plate and I can’t figure out what’s causing the issue on the side plate. Also I did back the tension knob off as well. I only took the reel apart because it was acting up. Went through my gear today to figure out my roster for the year and this one wasn’t like this before. So I took it apart to make sure everything inside was fine and I’ve narrowed it down to the side plate I guess :/

Have you put the other spools into this frame?

2 hours ago, MiceNReets said:

So this one bantam is giving me a headache again. So I take the side plate off and then put it back on and the spool doesn’t want to turn. Took everything apart and it’s all in correctly. I put the side plate on and nothing. Then I put all brake blocks up in the locked position and the spool turns and everything is smooth as should be. If I go back to the 2 brakes up and 2 brakes down and put the side plate on, the spool wont turn easily at all. So then if I hold the reel on its side so the brakes flip forward and put the side plate on that way, it’ll turn smoothly as it should. It seems the brake blocks are getting pressed down when the side plate is going on or it’s at least interfering with the brakes and side plate. I have 3 other ‘18 bantams and I don’t have this issue and they look identical to this bantam so I can’t for the life of me figure out what is interfering with the spool and the brake blocks when the side plate is on .

Anyone ever have this issue?

I just went thru this with another customer. Call me and I’ll try to explain. It’s hard to do in writing.

There’s nothing wrong or broken it’s a design issue.

1 hour ago, Delaware Valley Tackle said:

I just went thru this with another customer. Call me and I’ll try to explain. It’s hard to do in writing.

There’s nothing wrong or broken it’s a design issue.

I’ll have to try and give you a shout tomorrow after work. I’m thinking it’s the spool after all.

I swapped spools within every reel and everything is great except with this spool and I’ve noticed that the brake blocks go right down as for all the others float and don’t flop completely down. So when flopped completely down, the side plate must be just holding them down completely with no room to move. So maybe the spool is toast now? All 4 blocks do this

That’s right. It just happens in some reels. I get around it by holding the reel with the spool facing down and lift the side plate up into place. Gravity helps keep the brake tabs from flopping down like you describe. It’s easy to do but hard to describe. I end up doing a FaceTime call with the other guy.

15 hours ago, Delaware Valley Tackle said:

That’s right. It just happens in some reels. I get around it by holding the reel with the spool facing down and lift the side plate up into place. Gravity helps keep the brake tabs from flopping down like you describe. It’s easy to do but hard to describe. I end up doing a FaceTime call with the other guy.

That’s what I’ve been doing for this reel. Maybe I did the same last season and forgot. But luckily it’s a set and forget brake system for this reel and no need to keep opening the side plate so I’ll just continue to do the same then. Hold it on its side so gravity brings the pins down and put the side plate back on.

would changing these brake blocks change anything at this point?

5 hours ago, MiceNReets said:

That’s what I’ve been doing for this reel. Maybe I did the same last season and forgot. But luckily it’s a set and forget brake system for this reel and no need to keep opening the side plate so I’ll just continue to do the same then. Hold it on its side so gravity brings the pins down and put the side plate back on.

would changing these brake blocks change anything at this point?

I doubt it