the avet sx - tear down and rebuild

[alantani]

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....

[alantani]

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?

[Boatdog]

Look here, dude...I don't know where you're from, or who you know......


But these post's you've been doing ROCK!!!!

I mean really, there is a lot of time invested in post's like you are doing, and I, for one, APPRECIATE THEM IMMENSELY!!!!

SO here's to you, my friend.

Absolutely awesome IMO

..................... Penn 320/321 GTi :grin:

[Reelentless]

I've seen him post on other boards too. We are lucky to have him here. He has become the "go-to" man when it comes to fishing reels.

Are EX-2 speeds that much tougher to pull apart and maintain? I've been tempted to pull mine apart, but I chicken out. I think its the image I have of tiny springs shooting across the room that scares me.

Thanks again for the tutorials. They definitely should be pinned somewhere.

[edsr]

Great post alantani. Somehow the old saying, "rode hard put away wet" comes to mind.

Several weeks ago I tore down my Avets and there was very little corrosion anywhere on them. I think the reason they were in such good shape was because of a tip from Beer Waggin to wax them before even putting line on. He had some thing called Collinite's Insulator Wax which has really done a good job of protecting them. After two seasons there is little to no corrosion anywhere. the reels do get a good flush in freshwater after each trip. I think that Johnson's Paste Wax would also work.

edsr

[Onokai]

Alan is from The bay area thats San Francisco Bay area. He post's alot at the other tuna board -offshoreanglers. If you want more go thru his older posts there especially in the tackle talk area. He is a go to reel guy. Mark

[OuterLimits]

Excellent post!!