Blown up Curado K.

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Basswhippa
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Blown up Curado K.

Post by Basswhippa » Wed Apr 21, 2021 11:28 am

I am a Shimano man. I've been so since 1991. I raised my son to be one too. Between us we own 10 Calcuttas, 6 B series Curados, 1 B series Citica, 2 - Chronarch As, 6- Citica D's, 1- Curado D, 1 - Cardiff, 19 - E series, 4 - I series, 3 Bantam MGL-s and 3 K's. That is 56, Shimanocasting reels. Add in the spinning reels and it would be well into the 60's if not 70s.

We've never had a serious problem, until Saturday. My son casted his Curado K series and it stopped abruptly during a large payout tournament. It clacked cranking forward and backwards. He called Shimano and was honest with them. They wouldn't look at it in California, weren't particularly friendly and quickly referred him to Nutter Reels in Georgia.

I'm wondering what to expect as far as service goes from a Shimano repair center. The lady who answered really didn't seem to know what a Curado K was. I understand there was a major design flaw in the early K series, and I suspect it is one if them. I hate to buy any more Shimanos until I hear how this is resolved. I had dismissed all the plastic pawl and made in the inferior Malaysian facilities complaints as "bunk", but now I'm not so sure. I had planned to add some more Bantams and or Metanium this year. Anybody have experience? We just assumed we would be sending to Shimano, they would assess and remedy the problem, one way or the other and not be dealing with a reel repair center not owned or operated by Shimano.

Thanks and sorry to go long.

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filthyPhil
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Re: Blown up Curado K.

Post by filthyPhil » Wed Apr 21, 2021 6:30 pm

Doubt it's the pawl, I've thoroughly abused my K's over the last two years with no problems. I've never sent any reel in for repairs so cant help you there. I would guess the main gear, pinion, or the AR bearing pretty simple fixes if you are comfortable taking it apart.

bassfisherman619
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Re: Blown up Curado K.

Post by bassfisherman619 » Wed Apr 21, 2021 6:40 pm

Send Bantam1 a message on the Shimano product support page.

Fishing4Fun
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Re: Blown up Curado K.

Post by Fishing4Fun » Thu Apr 22, 2021 7:12 am

Try the guys at the TackleTrap. I would trust them more so than anyone else.

hoohoorjoo
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Re: Blown up Curado K.

Post by hoohoorjoo » Thu Apr 22, 2021 12:05 pm

Nutter is a solid reel tech. His business is an authorized Shimano service center.
Try not to let your mind wander. It is much too small to be outside unsupervised.

Hulkster
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Re: Blown up Curado K.

Post by Hulkster » Fri Apr 23, 2021 5:34 am

I understand there was a major design flaw in the early K series, and I suspect it is one if them.
the only thing i heard was the thumb bar kept coming off.

what else have you heard??

Basswhippa
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Re: Blown up Curado K.

Post by Basswhippa » Fri Apr 23, 2021 8:15 pm

I believe there was a problem with the clutch on them.

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filthyPhil
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Re: Blown up Curado K.

Post by filthyPhil » Fri Apr 23, 2021 9:03 pm

I remember hearing about some of the first ones having an issue with the thumb bars breaking off other than that I've not heard of any other problems. Hopefully they get you taken care of quickly. I have three that stay on my kayak and all I've done is a yearly cleaning and clean and oil the brakes once a month. Hopefully your son had a back up, my back up has a back up. I learned that lesson the hard way when I used to fish tourneys.

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johnD
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Re: Blown up Curado K.

Post by johnD » Sun Apr 25, 2021 7:42 am

Hopefully they do away with that crappy thumb bar on the next curado. It's the only reason I sold the ones I had. Glad to see they kept standard thumb bar on new curado 70 , might give one of those a whirl.

Antonese
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Re: Blown up Curado K.

Post by Antonese » Mon May 03, 2021 11:10 am

Basswhippa wrote:
Wed Apr 21, 2021 11:28 am
I am a Shimano man. I've been so since 1991. I raised my son to be one too. Between us we own 10 Calcuttas, 6 B series Curados, 1 B series Citica, 2 - Chronarch As, 6- Citica D's, 1- Curado D, 1 - Cardiff, 19 - E series, 4 - I series, 3 Bantam MGL-s and 3 K's. That is 56, Shimanocasting reels. Add in the spinning reels and it would be well into the 60's if not 70s.

We've never had a serious problem, until Saturday. My son casted his Curado K series and it stopped abruptly during a large payout tournament. It clacked cranking forward and backwards. He called Shimano and was honest with them. They wouldn't look at it in California, weren't particularly friendly and quickly referred him to Nutter Reels in Georgia.

I'm wondering what to expect as far as service goes from a Shimano repair center. The lady who answered really didn't seem to know what a Curado K was. I understand there was a major design flaw in the early K series, and I suspect it is one if them. I hate to buy any more Shimanos until I hear how this is resolved. I had dismissed all the plastic pawl and made in the inferior Malaysian facilities complaints as "bunk", but now I'm not so sure. I had planned to add some more Bantams and or Metanium this year. Anybody have experience? We just assumed we would be sending to Shimano, they would assess and remedy the problem, one way or the other and not be dealing with a reel repair center not owned or operated by Shimano.

Thanks and sorry to go long.
I'm a little late to this one; keep in mind even the great Shimano will make mistakes. Likewise Daiwa had problems with the black inductor plastic ramp on SV spools (rectified with thicker white ramp). All manufactures will slip from time to time. Based on your collection I would not give up on the brand based on this one reel experience. Maybe its time to give Daiwa a whirl. Say new Zillion 1000 :shock: :D :big grin:

Basswhippa
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Re: Blown up Curado K.

Post by Basswhippa » Mon May 10, 2021 6:31 am

Thank you all. Based on the symptoms, we were shocked to find out it was only an anti reverse problem. We normally feel it slip and fix those ourselves on those rare occasions.

We did what Shimano said and sent to Nutter.. Nutter did a great job. Charged a $30 cleaning fee, a bearing fee of $15 and she's purring like a kitten. Nutter was fast too. Very pleased with their service and outcome.

Shimano for life!

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Cal
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Re: Blown up Curado K.

Post by Cal » Mon May 10, 2021 7:06 am

Basswhippa wrote:
Wed Apr 21, 2021 11:28 am
I had planned to add some more Bantams and or Metanium this year. Anybody have experience?
Among my very favorites in Shimano's lineup.
Cal, Managing Editor
"fish with mindfulness : beware the darkside"

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njbasscat
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Re: Blown up Curado K.

Post by njbasscat » Tue May 11, 2021 6:33 am

You have 56 Shimano casting reels and only 1 with problems. Can't get much better than that.

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filthyPhil
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Re: Blown up Curado K.

Post by filthyPhil » Tue May 11, 2021 9:18 am

Glad they got you fixed up, now I'm going to check my arb's asap. The met20 is great, only problem I've had is the svs dial gets almost impossible to adjust. I've taken it apart and lubed it but that's only a temp fix. Besides that it does weightless plastics very well so anything weighted does even better. The Bantam wont do very well under 1/4 but is an excellent reel for everything else.

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