I got an odd one for you guys......

Well I caught what I believe is a new personal best largemouth yesterday but just before this occurred, I caught a hard fighting 3-4lb catfish. I noticed when bringing it in that the anti-reverse mechanism was not working properly. All of sudden I could back reel. So the bail was spinning either backwards or forwards depending on which way I turned the handle. Then it started to sort of work again but it would be missing in a spot here and there. I thought it was a fluke and just continued to fish. Two casts later, I hooked into a bass that was 10lbs plus. It was wider than my PA14 and after netting it , it was just banging on my rods so I put it on the front latch. I got a hold of her, she shook hard and I lost her over the side of my kayak before I could take a picture or make an attempt measure and weigh it. I was bummed but it will live in my head forever.

Anyway, back to the reel. After my PB going overboard, I spent the next few minutes trying what I could to figure out if my reel was going to work or was totally busted. I kept casting and reeling to see if it would stop but no luck. I checked the drag by loosing it and then tightening it back down. Still no good. I took the spool off and put it back on. Again nothing changed. So I then decided to retire it for rest of the day with hopes of getting it fixed. Fast forward to this morning.... I took it back out again just to test it and give it one more look over before I drop it off to my local repair guy (I gave up on fixing spinning reels 15+ years ago). Oddly, the reel performed fine. I caught four fish with no issues. It was like the oddness of the back reeling never happened.

I looked at the reels diagram before I left to fish and the anti-reverse seems to be this piece of round plastic (guessing) with some springs and pins. I thought this has got to be my issue. In my mind if this part breaks, there is no way it can just fix itself. So my question is, has anyone come across something like this? In all my years of fishing, I have not had this happen and haven't seen it happen on any other reel. It's one thing for a reel to have broken parts but something completely different for it to just start working flawlessly again. The only thing I can think of was the heat. It was about 90 degrees but we had a heat index of around 100 and it was probably hotter on the floor of my kayak. I had a few discarded pieces of soft plastic that totally melted.

My guess is the reel cooled and then it was fine but how is this possible. I'm stumped on this one. What do you guys think?

Sounds like the anti-reverse bearing. Odd for a 3 year old high end reel, but you never know. Working intermittently would tell me that there is a piece broken but still in there so sometimes it catches and sometimes not. I wouldn’t think the grease viscosity or the parts tolerances would do it from the heat, but I could be wrong there.

6 minutes ago, casts_by_fly said:

Sounds like the anti-reverse bearing. Odd for a 3 year old high end reel, but you never know. Working intermittently would tell me that there is a piece broken but still in there so sometimes it catches and sometimes not. I wouldn’t think the grease viscosity or the parts tolerances would do it from the heat, but I could be wrong there.

Funny you should mention grease because that thought crossed my mind. I had this reel completely torn down and cleaned this spring for the first time. My guy told me he uses Lucas Oil Products of which I have used the oil and it's not bad. If he used the grease and if Google is correct, it has a temp rating of 140 degrees but I don't know if that would cause the issue.

A/R roller bearings, especially Shimano's, get misrepresented on this forum, especially by AI members.

Proper lube viscosity is critical in their proper function.

Certainly in the heat, the wrong lube can become too thin and cause A/R to malfunction, both binding in wind, and not binding in pay.

I agree with bulldog, but not just in the heat. Anytime the wrong lubricant is used brings on a possibility of a malfunction.

As an old bench tech one of the issues I have seen behind this are the springs inside used to push the needle bearings into place. In older Shimano AR clutch bearings they used some heftier springs. In more modern AR clutch bearings the springs are noticeably skimpier. Weaker.

To me this means they are even more finicky and prone to malfunction.

But the one thing to keep in mind for lubricants is indeed correct viscosity, and use a lightweight synthetic oil that will not change viscosity with our minor changes in temperatures. Petroleum products are more prone to this.

But more importantly, Shimano makes it very clear that grease should not be anywhere near an AR clutch bearing and even had it printed right onto some of their AR bearings. They did this because of customers getting into their own reels and using grease repeatedly so Shimano started printing the warning message "NO GREASE" right onto the outside of the AR clutch bearings.

Another issue I have run into in the past with these reels are that sometimes a combination of lubricants is found in the AR bearings. Oil plus grease. I've seen them packed with grease.

Point is I have seen where combinations of mixtures of different lubricants turn into honey like glue. This causes malfunctions.

Bulldog said: "Proper lube viscosity is critical in their proper function.

Certainly in the heat, the wrong lube can become too thin and cause A/R to malfunction, both binding in wind, and not binding in pay."

And I totally agree and add that to solve this is to simply use a full synthetic lightweight oil that does not change viscosity with the small minor changes in temperatures we humans can tolerate -should not be anywhere near enough of a variance to change viscosity of a good quality full synthetic oil.

@FloridaFishinFool I am not sure at this point but if my repair guy did add oil or grease to AR mechanism, what could that potentially do to my reel?

If the reel performed flawlessly prior to this years spring cleaning I would imagine the intermittent failure has something to do with said cleaning.

I had a Shimano 1001 XT's AR bearing work intermittently in the cold (high 30's). Once it warmed up it was okay. Idk what the deal was.... this was several years ago. The reel has been cleaned since and I haven't fished it in those temps since.

No harm really. Lots of extra rust prevention! 😁

I doubt if a professional would do such a thing. I was referring to things I had seen customers do to their reels from time to time.

I've seen AR bearings and reels jammed packed with grease. I guess more is better? And for some reason I keep having visions of bright red grease packed into a spinning reel.

As long as the AR is visibly in like new condition showing no signs of rust or corrosion, then possibly a good cleaning with a mild solvent like paint thinner to remove the grease and oil, and relubing it lightly with a lightweight synthetic oil might take care of it.

Some like to run the AR bearings dry, but here in Florida with our saltwater and heat environment we really need some corrosion prevention, and the oil will usually take care of it if maintained and the correct oil is used.

The point is to get the grease and or other possible improper lubricants out as bulldog pointed out, and get the dirt and debris -even corrosion- out of there that could be contributing to it to malfunction.

Sometimes a tech may not put grease on an AR bearing and maybe it can migrate in during use? Ya never know. But a good cleaning and relube should suffice. About all you can do unless you can purchase a brand new AR bearing and go from there. And don't throw the old ones away. They may come in handy one day.