the avet sx - tear down and rebuild

i've got photos of several avets that i'm going to post.  i will start with the sx tear down because it's the one that i took a complete set of photos of.   go to the avet website for schematics.  you can also call them for any parts that you might need.  the tear down on these reels is one of the most simple lever drag tear downs i know. 

a local kid brought this reel over.  it was fine.  he was just looking for a little more drag. 





pulling the right side plate off takes only two screws (key #31).



remove the right side plate and spool as a unit, then set it aside.  let's take a look inside.  the most common avet problem in the last half dozen reels i worked on was a stuck clicker assembly.  this one is fine.  if your's is stuck, drop a little corrosion x on it from both sides and work it, or let it soak.  then slap some grease on top.



the screws (key #56) of the reel seat of this particular reel were already greased.   check your reel, because that may not always be the case. 



now to the guts of the reel.  remove the preset knob and spring (key #'s 41 and 42).  you'll have to hold the spool shaft on the other side.  leave the lever exactly where it is and don't move it. 



it comes apart pretty easily at this point.  um, this is good and bad.  for the photo, i've put the spool shaft back together so that you can see the bellevilles (key #5), the pusher bushing (key #6), the left spool bearing (key #7), the spool tube or bearing sleeve (key #8), the right spool bearing (key #14), two spool washers (key #16) with a spool spring (key #15) in between, and the brake bearing (key #17).  note that i've already changed the configuration of the belleville washers from "()()" to "(())".



now, on to the drag washer.  this one's clean as a whistle, front ....



.... and back. 



i've applied a thick coat of shimano drag grease to the inside of the spool and to both sides of the drag washer.  the purpose is to protect these surfaces from salt water intrusion.  apply enough grease to prevent water from getting in between the drag washer and the spool.



now wipe all the excess grease.  and i mean all of it!  when you're done, you should be able to look at a greased washer and a dry washer and not be able to tell the difference. 



lube the bearings with corrosion x.  i've noted that some of the bearings have shields and some are open.  either way is fine. 



now put it all back together again



slide the spool shaft back through the side plate, hold the spool shaft on the left side and re-install the preset knob.



grease the screw holes, put everything back together.....



.... and watch it spin!



now, you will recall that this reel was brought to me because the owner wanted a little more drag range.  to acomplish this, i changed the belleville configuration from "()()" to "(())".  the result was interesting.  with every click of the knob, the drag increased predictably, going from 2.5 pounds, to 4, to 6, then 8, 10, 12, then it jumped to 15 and then to 18 before i finally lost freespool.  yup, 18 pounds of drag and i still had 45 seconds freespool! 



the problem was that at 10 pounds of drag, i started noticing a lateral load on the right side plate bearing.  the handle became increasingly difficult to crank.  so from a practical point of view, 10 pounds is still the maximum drag setting that you can use.  come to think of it, i should probably get this reel back and changed out the bellevilles again.  there's no point in having anything more than 10 pounds of drag at strike.  i'm sure the engineers at avet had already thought this through.  still, it was fun to do, even just this once!

nice reel, but it holds some surprises.  more on that later....

ok, here goes the editorial part. 

i will start out by saying that these are tough little reels.  you are about to see some pretty ugly stuff.  remember while you are looking at these photos, that all of these reels had good to excellent freespool.  they also all had good to excellent drag.  well, one reel had a sticky drag, but it would have still caught fish.  so i'm going to show you the photos and make a few explanations.  then i'm going to say what i like about the reel, then what i do not like, and then i'm going to duck out for a little bit while the fur flies!  i know these are very popular reels.  that's why it's taken me so long to work up the courage to write this post.  so here goes.....

so a guys sends me six avets just before christmas.   ok, fine, i don't get many of these (this is a good thing).  i've never written an avet rebuild post so i grab my camera and i take a shot of the reels....



i open up the first reel and i'm horrified!  here was the working side of the drag washer....



but this is what i found underneath.  we'll call this reel #1



i called avet and they said to just clean it and reinstall it.  so i cleaned it....



but decided to order new washers....



and some grease from cal sheets.



here's reel #2 with drag washer that's clean as a whistle. 



here's reel #3 with a stuck clicker and minimal salt water corrosion in the drag.







here's reel #4 with extensive salt water intrusion .





here's reel #5 with moderate salt water intrusion





and here's the jx, in perfect condition



the reels were all rebuilt with no change in bellville configuration.  the first three mxj's had drag washers that were greased with shimano drag grease and all three delivered 9 pound of drag at strike before losing freespool.  the last two mxj's and the jx were rebuilt with cal's drag grease.  the two mxj's delivered 9 pound of drag at strike before losing freespool.  the jx delivered 12 pound of drag at strike.   

so here's what i like.  i like the open design of the avet drag chamber.  without a spool cap to cover the drag chamber, yes water will get in, but it will also get out.  sure, a cap on the drag chamber will keep small amounts of water out.  but if water gets in, it's trapped.  that's the main and fatal problem with the penn 975 lever drag. 

i don't like the fact that avet uses a dry drag washer.   i saw no loss of drag range in these six reels with grease on the drag washers.  and i'm certain no one would disagree that grease would stop the corrosion dead in it's tracks.  it's my opinion that a grease drag is a good thing.  either shimano or cal's drag grease should work just fine.

so now that everyone knows how to tear down and rebuild these reels, i have a question.....

what's in your avet?

It seems like the drag washer abuts directly to the aluminum spool?

no doubt they know what they are doing, but how common is that aspect
of the design?

alan, thanks so much for these posts, they are great!

the design is very common,but only the avet has a totally open drag chamber.  the only other reel that is this bad is the penn 975 lever drag. 

Alan-
Very educational stuff... especially since I have a couple of Avets that I use all of the time. I'm affraid to pop mine open since they've both been dumped in the ocean... I've had a little bit of problems with my SX last season. Corrosion on the bearings... The guy I brought it to said that he's never seen it happen on an Avet... so, he fixed it at no charge. My MX has worked like a champ though. I think I'll be taking your advice and grease them up though. What's the worse thing that can happen... other than not being able to put the reel back together again. Thanks for this post.

Freddie

Thanks so much Alan...so would you buy one of these reels?  I need to get one more reel for baja this year.

Alan,
I bought 2 SX's 2 yrs ago.  One for me and one for Freddie.

His actually froze up with maybe 6-8 trips under its belt.  He swears it was never submerged and we ALWAYS blast them with a hose after each trip.  Cosmetically it looked fine.

He took it to Ly's in SJ to get it fixed (no charge).  Ly said it was shot and the bearing were all froze up.  He said he'd never seen one so bad.  After that, I was/still am worried about mine, because I know he didn't abuse it and I have the same reel.

When things calm down, I'm going to have you crack mine open, but I've only used it maybe 4 or 5 times.  My one complaint about this reel is that the drag sensitivity sucks.  When I barely notch up on the lever drag, the drag weigh increases tremendously.  Yeah, I know you're not supposed to increase the drag on a fish (heart ache waiting to happen), but there's been times when I simply want to adjust it and its a pain.


Stuart

these are very tough reels.  like so many things, they need just a little more grease and you'll have a trouble free reel, even for kayaking!  i personally do not care for lever drag reel, but, yes, i would have no trouble fishing with this reel. 

Fred,
I didn't see your post above mine.  Based on your experience, I'm a bit sketch on the SX.  Prior to freezing up, you took excellent care of it and had very little use on it.  I'm real curious to see what mine looks like on the inside.

Stu

Stuie-

We can break them down together... make a party out of it. I have a feeling that the reels will be fine though. Eventhough I use the SX more than the MX, I'm happier with the MX. The drag adjustment seems better... but it's no Accurate. Overall, I'm confident fishing with either reel.

Allan-

I may be calling you for some help in the near future. I guess that I should just breakdown the reels and replace any parts that are corroded and lube them up. I want to get my reels all tweeked out before my trip to Baja. Thanks again for the tutorial.

Freddie