I am going through and servicing all of my reels and I have one citica E series that I am having trouble with....I have broken it down, but for some reason I cannot get the main gear to come off of the drive shaft. I have done this dozens of times between all of my reels, but have never had this problem. The drag washer isn't holding it on, I can separate the main gear about 1/16 or 1/8 of an inch from the washer below it, but it wont come up the rest of the way. The pinion gear is out and everything above the gear including the drag washer and plate have come out fine......I'm stuck. If anyone has any suggestions for getting that gear off of there I would love to hear them. DVT where you at!

You have a small metal burr on the drive shaft, it is very common, take a wire brush and brush the area of the shaft where it is getting hung up, if that does not fix it, take a close look at it and carefully remove any burrs with an emory board.

will give that a try, thank you.

Your welcome, let me know how it goes.

Yup aavery2 is right-on.

Here is what i do.

Get the handle and mount it on the shaft (no need to screw it on). This will help you prevent the shaft to move while working the main gear loose.

Work the main gear free by slowly turning the main gear left to right vice versa while applying upward force on the main gear.

Check the burr on the shaft and smooth it out with a dremel or sandpaper just enough so that you cant feel

the burr on the shaft. Do a test run by sliding the main gear and see if it still gets stuck.

Thanks guys....got the main gear off. Now is there anything I need to worry about with the drive shaft having been sanded on a bit? should i try to polish it smooth again or replace it altogether or just not worry about it? The only thing that sits on that area of the drive shaft is the antireverse sleeve I think. I appreciate the help.

Thanks guys....got the main gear off. Now is there anything I need to worry about with the drive shaft having been sanded on a bit? should i try to polish it smooth again or replace it altogether or just not worry about it? The only thing that sits on that area of the drive shaft is the antireverse sleeve I think. I appreciate the help.

I sanded mine with multiple grits of sandpaper until I smoothen the burr out. You can polish it no biggie.

My citica 201e is still going strong and I see no issues after the sanding.

On a side note if you search for drag tuning they actually sand that area to help improve the smoothness of the drag.

I usually just follow up with a good brushing of the threads and the area of the burr with a wire brush.

I usually just follow up with a good brushing of the threads and the area of the burr with a wire brush.

exactly what i did.....reel is back together and everything seems to be in order!

I use a small diamond file on the shaft burrs. It removes the right amount.