learning the hard way.

long story short my father refuses to upgrade his gear. he does get my old rods as i upgrade but as far as reels go hes stuck in 1985. he loves the Daiwa plastic reels from that time. ive bought him new reels as gifts but for the most part they sit in the box un-used.

a few weeks ago he gave me an old Daiwa reel to clean/lube. as soon as i got the reel home i broke it down and measured the reel for new bearings. i was already ordering orange seal bearing for my Sol so i decided to order orange seals for the old Daiwas as well. yesterday the bearings came in the mail. i clean/lubed the reel, slapped the thing back together, and cant wait to try this thing out. the first good thing i noticed is there was no more side play in the drive shaft.that was nice. after that not much. in the end the reel is for the most part still a plastic craptastic reel with orange seal bearings. the things just not made well enough to gets a lot out of the bearings.