I was reeling in my cabelas tourney zx yesterday, and all of a sudden it got harder and harder to reel in. Line wasn't tangled or anything, it had me puzzled. Then i looked down, where the line goes out and comes in, that piece that moves side to side as you reel, was not moving side to side. I casted multiple times to see if it would go away, an no it didn't. It just sits there as line builds up in one spot on the spool. I have noticed in the past few outings that it has been getting gradually harder to retrieve, and it would tense up sometimes, and be not as easy to reel, then it'd stop and reel normal. An on and off kind of thing. What could be wrong? Any help is really appreciated, Thanks alot!

Underneath the line guide(thing that moves from side to side) there is a cap that you can unscrew. Its a flat screwdriver slot. That cap holds a pawl that runs in the worm gear to make it go from side to side. Once you get it apart you will see the mechanics of it. Usually that pawl gets worn down from collecting dirt and dust. It will probably need to be replaced.

I started using reel covers awhile back because I travel on gravel roads a lot to get to my fishings spots. That fine gravel gets in that worm gear and chews the pawl up. Another good practice is to oil that worm gear often, especially if your reels get dusty or dirty a lot.

I would venture a guess that as you kept cranking through the binding you have wiped out the idler gears teeth that drives the worm gear, that runs the line carriage (piece that goes back n forth).

You need to have a pro or the mfg service your reel.

Good Luck & Tight Lines!

Yup, that's going to need some work. It's very important to not continue using a reel that is not working correctly. Simple fixes quickly become compounded.

Lube is important, but just adding lube on top of old dirty lube can do more harm than good. Do your best to keep dirt and grit out of the level wind and have the reel cleaned and relubed as necessary.

thanks everyone. im probably just going to take it back and get a new one.