Abu Revo Toro teardown

I've ended up with three of these reels now cause I really like them. Two right handed 60HS & one left handed Toro Winch that has become my favorite saltwater reel. The two RH ones have been around for a few years now. At the end of last season the drag became 'sticky' on one so I stopped using it. A month ago the spool release thumb bar stayed down & the spool would not re-engage on the other one. I was going to send them to Alan Tani but Pat posted up something about him retiring so I decided to tear this one down and see what the problem was.

There were some early versions that had a part to replace in regard to this type of problem but I found my reel was one of the newer versions, 18:01, that already had the revised part. The problem was two-fold. The 'clutch plate' was sticky from old grease, with a little sand maybe, and also there was some corrosion under the thumb bar where it slides up & down. I cleaned & re-greased it & then used some 600 grit sand-paper to knock down the corrosion from the frame metal under the thumb bar. I ordered some Cal's drag grease off of E-bay and greased the carbon fiber drag washers. I used some Xtreme Reel + to oil the levelwind & spool bearings cause I couldn't get any Corrosion X locally. I'm going to order some for the other two reels cause Alan Tani likes it better than the Xtreme stuff.

I just got the reel back together & it sounds & feels great. Drag is super smooth, freespool time is long, and the spool re-engages like it should. This reel has been used hard for over two years & seen plenty of saltwater dunkings. I'm surprised but it's really still in pretty good shape. All of the bearings were still usable. Here is a link for the tutorial over on Alan Tani's website. The only part that was tricky was getting the clutch plate all back together once I had it all greased up cause there is two little springs involved. But if you do it once dry, after you've cleaned it all up, and get the proper reassembly sequence down......then you will get it done even when greased. jim


http://alantani.com/index.php?topic=3166.0

Here is a picture of where the corrosion was located. I didn't really find any other significant corrosion anywhere. I'll post back though if I see anything on the other two reels when I get around to them.

One more thing. There was some mention made over on Alan Tani's forum about bad corrosion under the little gold knob that's used for cast control/spool tension. But I had lost one of these gold knobs right after I got my first Toro. I had to order it from Abu Garcia & so when I got the new one I decided to just remove the 'guts', silicone the hole closed in the gold knob, & then lock-tite it down tight. I lose the function of the knob but I don't use these reels to cast so I would rather not lose another knob & also eliminate a hole where saltwater can intrude.

Thanks for reminding me.....Jim..   

 I have 3 or 4 myself to tear down..... someday   

No problem Joe! 

Damn......one more thing I almost forgot. Getting the spool out. The best way I found was to take a very thin bladed flat-tip screwdriver and work the spool free by prying it away from the handle side of the body little by little. It works out pretty quick if you hold the reel inverted, after removing the one side case, and keep constant downwards pressure on the spool using your thumb to push down on the line.

Thanks Jim. Two other tips is don't tighten the screw that holds the lubrication door on too much or it will strip the threads. Also be careful not to cross thread the star drag when you put it back on the drive spindle. It's really easy to do. One of my least favorite reels to work on but they are fun to fish with. Blasting the spool bearings, clutch and levelwind mechanism with corrosion x once a month will help prevent some of the corrosion problems and  only takes a few minutes.

Thanks for the tips guys.  I have a Toro too that need some TLC    Great job on repairing the reel Jim! We need someone here taking over Alan's great job 

Dude this is very timely & helpful! Thanks!

I just finished with the second RH reel. One of the carbon fiber drag washers was stuck to the main gear & the middle CF washer was stuck to the middle metal plate. Just had to spend some time cleaning the main brass gear & those metal plates with a white scotch pad & some powdered cleanser. Then coat the CF washers with Cal's grease. Cleaned & greased everything else, back together, & just like new.

Scott, I actually tried assembling the clutch mechanism with just the Xtreme Reel + but it was too sticky feeling. I greased everything good, like it shows in the tutorial, and it seems much smoother feeling when I re-engage the spool. I did spray some all around the thumb bar area though and of course the levelwind assembly & spool bearings. Still waiting for OPS to get some Corrosion X in stock.

Here's a few pics of the one step that got me just a little frustrated on the first reel. This third reel is my LH Revo Toro Winch so everything's backwards but the idea's the same. You want to put the bigger of the two springs hanging on the clutch but then wait until you get the clutch assy screwed back down. Then the last step is to use a small needle nose pliers and get this spring back into position. The other smaller spring is easier to put into position as you are assembling the clutch but the bigger one is a little too strong to do the same thing. Way easier to do this way.

I found this reel to be in even better shape than the first two which makes sense cause it has seen less use/is newer. But there was the beginning of some corrosion forming under the thumb bar so I will try to keep spraying some lube under there in the future.

The spring I'm talking about is at the bottom of the third & fourth pics. In the third pic it's hanging and in the fourth it's back in position.

Thanks for the inspiration Jim, I need to work on both of my Toros.

Did you take the nose piece off and get into the bearings at all? Or did you just take the side covers off? Ive had all the bearings replaced in my toros with ceramics.

Not sure what you mean by 'nose piece'? I've completely disassembled the reels except the levelwinds which seem fine so I didn't bother with those. Just sprayed them with the Xtreme Reel +. The hardest part was probably getting the spools off of the two RH ones. They were really stuck on good. The spool on the newer LH came right off though. I guess if I use these for long enough I will eventually replace bearings but none need to be done yet. I plan on pulling these apart once a year from now on. Next up I'm going to pull apart an older well used Abu C3 5500 I got as a gift & see what it needs.

Craig, if you need to borrow my Cal's drag grease let me know. I also can help you next time u wanna take yours down for cleaning/regreasing. Once u do it a couple times it's not too bad......unless u lose any parts.