another saltiga problem ......

hoo, boy.   i only have the one set of pictures for the spool issues, but i've had two guys come to me with broken spools from daiwa saltigas.  you've seen this one before. 



now i've come up with another issue.  check this out.  it's a saltiga 50.







so what happened is this.  i added a small bead of grease to the screw hole.  done that a thousand times with other reels.  just as i gave the screw driver that last turn, i heard a "snap."   i was horrified to see that the frame had cracked at the screw hole.  um, $200 worth of horrified, i might add.  that's the cost of a new frame.  i spoke to another guy that does alot of reel work and he says he had the same thing happen, only he used corrosion x on the screw thread.

so what i think happened is this.  the tolerances on the threads of the screw holes are so tight that there's no room for air, excess grease or excess oil to squeeze out when tightening down the screws.  this causes a crack at this one weak spot of our $200 frame.  a guy sent this reel for me to service and there's no way that it's going back broken.  i just have to eat this one.   

thank you for listening to this brief public service announcement.  you may return to your regularly scheduled program ....

Alan you've entered "Hydraulic Hell",like my buddy in High School. He went to the car wash and washed his shiny chromed out engine with the cool mesh top air filter. Then he went to start his car-almost. Liquids don't compress in your motor, but the pushrods, pistons,and rods do.

i encourage guys to work on their own gear.  when i make a mistake, you guys have to be the first to know. 

maybe those low-tech graphite and plastic frames aren't so bad after all?

john

Sounds like an issue Daiwa should be "eating" considering that you're not the only reel expert that's cracking frames.  They should be thanking you for the feed back because if word got out that the Saltiga frames had engineering flaws, I suspect that their sales would take a hit.  I know I'm not alone when I say that we consider you our reel guru and if you have a public service announcement you have our attention.

BTW I've taken advantage of your tech reports on the Penn reels and am forever grateful for the thorough descriptions.  So I'm still hanging with John and the low-tech graphite reel crowd because it serves my needs.  However, if I did want to spring for a good reel I'd like to make sure it didn't have any inherent flaws. 

Quick question, any recommendations on where to buy new drag discs and spare parts etc?  On-line or local stores? 

Gary

Hey alan:

That really is pretty horrifying, pop and crack!

I'd expect Daiwa to replace at no charge, did you contact the company?

Allen

for drag washers call smoothie drag. it just doesn't get any better and they're in ya'lls neck of the woods

http://www.smoothdrag.com/

for penn parts i use scotts. they know more then penn themself when it comes to modifying reels and they have parts that penn doesn't even stock anymore.

http://store.scottsbt.com/index.aspx

for abu's, shimano, and diawa i use southwestern parts because they're close to me and i generally get the parts within a day or so

http://store.scottsbt.com/index.aspx

these are my favorites and i've dealt with them for years. i'm sure alan can share even more

nope, shawn, you've pretty much covered it.  i will call the fisherman's warehouse in sacramento for smaller quantities.  otherwise, i have to go to the source.  funny, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.