I have a Daiwa S103HL reel, and really like it a lot.  The problem is after I had used the reel for about a year, it started actiing like the gears were coming unmeshed when it had a load on it.(cost me a good fish).  Took it apart and the  teeth on the pinion gear were worn sharp.  Replaced the pinion and it was fine for about another year, now it is doing the same thing again.

What could I be doing wrong that would cause it to wear out that soon?  It is a great reel other than the pinion problem.

cwb60  

Either the drag is set too tight, or you are engaging the spool before it stops spinning.

I never engage it before the spool stops turning, but you may be on to something about the drag.  I do run it tight.

I think I will order new dragwasher and a pinion and try it again.

Thanks

How bad is it if you engage the spool before it fully stops spinning? Sometimes I do it on accident with my Fuego just from the way I hold the reel. The reel has been feeling like it is laboring when retrieving heavy vibration lures and fish.

You run the risk of damaging the gearing, but whats worse is the shock to the worm gear and pawl in the level wind.

It's mostly when I throw buzzbaits and I try to engage the spool quickly to start retrieving once it hits the water.

I'm not even sure if that's what is happening. I kind of thought it might be the fact that sometimes my thumb bar doesn't come all the way back up to the normal position when I first engage the spool sometimes.

I really have no idea about the inner workings of reels. You repair and clean reels right, JFrancho?

cwb60

Take a good look at the engagement slots on the base of your pinion gear, bet they are starting to round out....

JF is on target..........

Now if your not engaging the reel while the spool is turning, and, you have heavy drag setup (trying for direct drive). You are letting an older reel get to much reverse torque built up in the crank stack. The pinion yoke springs aren't that strong and the reel will try to disengage (pinion yoke lifts with pinion gear to dis-engage the spool).

If this has happened even once there are usually more to come and it gets worse, then the engagement slots on the base of the pinion gear round out.

Now one other thing comes to mind if your using braid, and trying for direct drive drags. You may have blown out the one-way bearing pack (AR). Need to allow for stretch or lack of....

Tight Lines!!!!  

this is an interesting discussion, particularly the part about how too tight a drag can wear out the gears. is this possibly the reason why no one else has followed ABU garcia into the 24 lb. drag arena? i mean, it doesn't seem that hard to do but shimano and daiwa are happily standing pat at no more than 11 lbs.

this is an interesting discussion, particularly the part about how too tight a drag can wear out the gears. is this possibly the reason why no one else has followed ABU garcia into the 24 lb. drag arena? i mean, it doesn't seem that hard to do but shimano and daiwa are happily standing pat at no more than 11 lbs.

Or its simply a more realistic estimate of what drag you can expect throughout the life of a reel.  I've seen Revos that have fell FAR short of 24 lb. max drag after just one season.  The carbon fiber washers are not nearly as robust as the aftermarket ones.

this is an interesting discussion, particularly the part about how too tight a drag can wear out the gears. is this possibly the reason why no one else has followed ABU garcia into the 24 lb. drag arena? i mean, it doesn't seem that hard to do but shimano and daiwa are happily standing pat at no more than 11 lbs.

Or its simply a more realistic estimate of what drag you can expect throughout the life of a reel. I've seen Revos that have fell FAR short of 24 lb. max drag after just one season. The carbon fiber washers are not nearly as robust as the aftermarket ones.

hmmm....very interesting. sounds kinda like summer tires for high performance sports cars...great when new but they wear out very quickly and are terrible in the wet.

Don't get me wrong, they still have plenty of power in them, enough for any normal fishing application.  I think max drag is a highly overrated stat.  Smoothness and the way a reel transitions into slippage is much more important, but much more subjective and difficult to quantify.

Anyway, if we could get a macro shot of that pinion, I think the answer might be clear.  That's a tall order, though.