I have a quantum that i recently "tuned" by polishing the centrifugal brake wall(inside of the metal area that the breaks contact, i don't know the correct terminology). The casting distance increased significantly, but I makes a good whining noise. I reapplied some grease to the walls and that helped some, but its still not as quite as it use to be. Should i apply more grease or is this normal?

Also, is it possible to change the gear ratio on this reel?

Thanks,

Chris

A centrifugal brake drum is no place for grease. A very light coat of light oil wiped on with a cotton swab is sufficient. If modifying the brakes added to casting distance all you did is make the brakes not work. What exactly did you polish and with what? Has the reel been cleaned? Did you remove the bearing in the side plate while working on it? You may have contaminated the bearing and the noise is coming from there. If your model reel came in different gear ratios the conversion should be straight forward. If not you'll have to contact Quantum and see if there is a cross-reference with another reel.

Breaks still work just fine, the reel is alot smoother now. The added noise of the "pins" agains break drum is the only issue now. I tried the light coat of oil on the cotton swab first, didn't seem to do anything. Should i have noticed an affect with the light oil? Brake drum(thats the word) had a light coat of grease on it when i bought it. I completely disassembled the brake drum from the sideplate before polishing.

Polished it using a q-tip on the end of a drill with a ultra fine polishing compound, using light pressure. I got that idea from a thread on this forum a little while back.

I haven't got around to cleaning this reel yet, as its still fairly new. Functioned fine as new and works even better now, the added noise is the only issue now.

It is available in another ratio, ill give quantum a call.

It's not uncommon for factories to mask noise from a reel by over-lubing. It sounds as though that you followed good procedure. As long as the drum is seated properly and oiled lightly the brakes shouldn't be terribly loud but will probably remain noticeable unless you grease the heck out of the drum which kinda puts you back to square one. The bearings will probably benefit flushing anyway and double checking the spool rim and seat areas cleaning with denat alcohol on the chance that you picked up some grit. It doesn't take much in the wrong spot to make noise. Remember if you change gear ratio you will need both the main gear and pinion.

I had several Quantum PT's. Some 600 series (the original PT) and some 700 series. Every one of them got quieter after a brake drum polish.

If that was my reel. I'd clean the spool bearings right now.

You'll also need to get the grease out of the brake pins and the cage they are in. Take the line off the spool and hose it down with brake or carb cleaner. Or soak it in lighter fluid.

I needed to do the same thing because I greased the brake drum trying to get it quieter.

Thanks for the advice guys. I'll give the above recommendations a go.