Spinning Reel Lunging Forward

[DirtyD64]

After a decent day of river fishing, my wife's spinning reel began to give her problems. She and I have both fished this reel pretty hard, no issues at all, it has been a great reel... It is only about 1.5 years old. The issue is, when reeling (only under pressure, like fighting a fish) it lunges forward after a smoother friction feeling. The lunge seems to occur during the same area on rotations. The drag is butter smooth still when pulling out line, if you loosen the drag and pull line it is fine; even reeling with lighter drag settings the issue isn't noticeable (the issue only occurs at higher drag settings). This is a freshwater only reel, immaculately cleaned, rarely fished, etc. I disassembled it and didn't really find any issues. The drag stack looked okay, the main gear was alright, the worm gear looked slightly worn (but not bad by any means), overall I found nothing.

Is there anyone that has any ideas to help? It is a Gen1 Revo Premier30, I can probably call Abu and they will help me, but they have replaced plenty of rods for me and I fear that they will get tired of helping. Either way I would just like to know. My newer Revo Stx20 spinning reel is starting to make some strange sounds now too, after a long winter of smallmouth fishing. It sounds like line is slapping somewhere when the rotor spins, only there is no line extending to slap.

[Dug]

I really wanted to offer my help, but I am hung up on understanding what you mean by lunge. Can you put it another way?

Dug

[Slazmo]

Worm drive - assuming Shimano Stradic et al, or dinosaur era Daiwa.

Have you tried looking at the pawl housing connection screw with the spool shaft - those screws come loose "all the time", should be factory locktite red'd in...

Pinion gear - ensuring the AR is properly seated, ensuring that if there was anshim washer under the main big end bearing that its there.

It honestly sounds like the pinion is moving back and forward?

Interested to hear your reply.

[DirtyD64]

Worm drive - assuming Shimano Stradic et al, or dinosaur era Daiwa.

Have you tried looking at the pawl housing connection screw with the spool shaft - those screws come loose "all the time", should be factory locktite red'd in...

Pinion gear - ensuring the AR is properly seated, ensuring that if there was anshim washer under the main big end bearing that its there.

It honestly sounds like the pinion is moving back and forward?

Interested to hear your reply.

Checked the pinion and the nut that holds it forward (also holds the rotor on), but when I turned the gears by hand this is what I figured was wrong. If I manually pulled the pinion forward, it was smooth from what I could tell, if you pushed it backwards toward the gear box, it did the herky jerky stop and go thing. Problem is, there is a lock nut preventing that bolt from moving like a Daiwa baitcaster handle.

[DirtyD64]

I really wanted to offer my help, but I am hung up on understanding what you mean by lunge. Can you put it another way?

Dug

By lunge, I meant that under load, the reel is smooth for about 3/4 of a handle rotation, then in one spot, it starts feeling more tight and with pressure jumps forward, then is smooth again, until around the same area. It only does this under load/heavy drag though. Even if there is a heavy load, if the drag is loose, its still butter smooth. For an Abu spinning reel, this one has been a tank. Problem is, she does have it on a pretty stout spinning rod, and does fish slightly heavier baits than I would on most spinning, just easier overall for her to use this than a baitcaster.

[DirtyD64]

Well they said send it to them. Figure they will just replace it. Sad, even though this was an Abu, she was a good one. I feel like this one deserves to be buried in the equipment cemetery in the backyard.

[mark poulson]

I really wanted to offer my help, but I am hung up on understanding what you mean by lunge. Can you put it another way?

Dug

By lunge, I meant that under load, the reel is smooth for about 3/4 of a handle rotation, then in one spot, it starts feeling more tight and with pressure jumps forward, then is smooth again, until around the same area. It only does this under load/heavy drag though. Even if there is a heavy load, if the drag is loose, its still butter smooth. For an Abu spinning reel, this one has been a tank. Problem is, she does have it on a pretty stout spinning rod, and does fish slightly heavier baits than I would on most spinning, just easier overall for her to use this than a baitcaster.

Too many years ago I had this problem on a reel, and it was a slightly bent shaft.

[DirtyD64]

I really wanted to offer my help, but I am hung up on understanding what you mean by lunge. Can you put it another way?

Dug

By lunge, I meant that under load, the reel is smooth for about 3/4 of a handle rotation, then in one spot, it starts feeling more tight and with pressure jumps forward, then is smooth again, until around the same area. It only does this under load/heavy drag though. Even if there is a heavy load, if the drag is loose, its still butter smooth. For an Abu spinning reel, this one has been a tank. Problem is, she does have it on a pretty stout spinning rod, and does fish slightly heavier baits than I would on most spinning, just easier overall for her to use this than a baitcaster.

Too many years ago I had this problem on a reel, and it was a slightly bent shaft.

Main shaft? The fact that it is very smooth on while turning without load confuses me. Then if the drag is loose and you crank it, also still smooth. But the second the drag is at a high setting, and you crank like you were fighting a fish... That "catch" feeling starts and it jumps forward after you hit the tight spot. For 3/4 a turn then, good as new, until it hits that spot again.

[mark poulson]

I really wanted to offer my help, but I am hung up on understanding what you mean by lunge. Can you put it another way?

Dug

By lunge, I meant that under load, the reel is smooth for about 3/4 of a handle rotation, then in one spot, it starts feeling more tight and with pressure jumps forward, then is smooth again, until around the same area. It only does this under load/heavy drag though. Even if there is a heavy load, if the drag is loose, its still butter smooth. For an Abu spinning reel, this one has been a tank. Problem is, she does have it on a pretty stout spinning rod, and does fish slightly heavier baits than I would on most spinning, just easier overall for her to use this than a baitcaster.

Too many years ago I had this problem on a reel, and it was a slightly bent shaft.

Main shaft? The fact that it is very smooth on while turning without load confuses me. Then if the drag is loose and you crank it, also still smooth. But the second the drag is at a high setting, and you crank like you were fighting a fish... That "catch" feeling starts and it jumps forward after you hit the tight spot. For 3/4 a turn then, good as new, until it hits that spot again.

In my case (again, years ago) I found the spool would rub at a certain point when the drag was set tighter. Loose drag didn't seem to rub. I watched the spool, and pushed it away from the side that was rubbing when it hit that spot. That worked for me.
Looking back, it might have been a slightly bent spool, too, but all I cared about at the time was stopping the rubbing so I could fish.

[DirtyD64]

I really wanted to offer my help, but I am hung up on understanding what you mean by lunge. Can you put it another way?

Dug

By lunge, I meant that under load, the reel is smooth for about 3/4 of a handle rotation, then in one spot, it starts feeling more tight and with pressure jumps forward, then is smooth again, until around the same area. It only does this under load/heavy drag though. Even if there is a heavy load, if the drag is loose, its still butter smooth. For an Abu spinning reel, this one has been a tank. Problem is, she does have it on a pretty stout spinning rod, and does fish slightly heavier baits than I would on most spinning, just easier overall for her to use this than a baitcaster.

Too many years ago I had this problem on a reel, and it was a slightly bent shaft.

Main shaft? The fact that it is very smooth on while turning without load confuses me. Then if the drag is loose and you crank it, also still smooth. But the second the drag is at a high setting, and you crank like you were fighting a fish... That "catch" feeling starts and it jumps forward after you hit the tight spot. For 3/4 a turn then, good as new, until it hits that spot again.

In my case (again, years ago) I found the spool would rub at a certain point when the drag was set tighter. Loose drag didn't seem to rub. I watched the spool, and pushed it away from the side that was rubbing when it hit that spot. That worked for me.
Looking back, it might have been a slightly bent spool, too, but all I cared about at the time was stopping the rubbing so I could fish.

Interesting. If for some reason they do not offer help I will try this. It is definitely still fishable, just a nuisance. If they do send her a new reel, is it safe to use a composite stem/frame with an aluminum lock nut reel seat?