Alantani's post about the Daiwa SLD30's being a bear to work on concerned me, as I bought two of the single speeds last year and fished them. Today, I'm sitting at home, nursing my wife, bored, and stewing about my reels. I really like the build quality, freespool, and the way they feel in my hands, and want to feel good about using them. Which means I have to know they're okay on the inside. You can guess where this is going.
I called Daiwa to inquire about these reels, and was told they have no written material on the reel except the owner's pamphlet, which shows a schematic. In other words, no step-by-step instructions on how to service this reel. They told me that the drag washers are a material similar to the HT100 washers, ie, some kind of carbon composite, and that the drag is a "wet" system, ie, lubed from the factory. He also told me that they service the reels for $10, plus parts, and that they sometimes get basket cases in for repair. I took this as carte blanche to open these reels up. Here's what I found. Bear in mind I know little about LD reels, so my approach may be different or even wrong. But it seems to have worked okay. Here we go:
Removing the right sideplate removes not only the plate, but the entire spool assembly:
The frame is one piece aluminum, and there really isn't much left in the frame after removing the right sideplate and spool as a unit. Just a bearing and the clicker remain. As the bearing looked pristine, I didn't try to remove it, unshroud it, or anything like that. I just put a few drops of light machine oil on it and called it good:
Removing the drag lever:
exposes a retainer (68). Removing this allows you to pull the spool assembly out of the right side plate. The right side plate components were clean and the lube looked like new, so I didn't take it apart. Sorry about not having photos, but it's straight forward once the retainer is out.
Disassembling the drag and spool assembly is pretty straight forward. First the ring (23) comes off, then the clicker gear (24), then the rachet cover plate (25) comes off after removing the four screws:
This exposes the drag mechanism, which actually comes off pretty easily. Remove the retainer (27), the collar (95), then compressing the drag mechanism allows the pin (96) to fall free, then the washer comes off and the whole thing just falls apart. Taking pictures as you go makes it easier to get it all back together the way it came apart. I didn't get good pictures of the small parts on the shaft, but here they are in the order of removal, from left to right:
Now the drag plates and spring come off:
The left spool bearing is next. Again, it looked new, so I did nothing to it. Here is a picture of the spool shaft and components in rough order of disassmbly:
The right spool bearing is retained by the drive shaft retainer (38), shown here:
Again, I didn't fix it because it wasn't broke.
I greased the drags with my special bicycle grease:
While doing so, I noted that the material frayed at the edges a bit. I did my best to remove the fragments from the surface of the drag washers, then put everything back together. I greased the screw holes and mating surfaces of the sideplate and frame (Mobile 1), to prevent salt water intrusion. I saw no evidence of this happening, and don't want any.
The reel works just as it did before. I stopped pulling when my scale hit 25# of drag, as I won't fish a drag that high anyway with the 40# Big Game they have on them. I set them to 14# at strike, and have perfect freespool.
So, for those of you who own these reels, take heart. They should last a good, long time. When they need service, it's doable, and if you get into trouble, or just don't want to do it yourself, send it to Daiwa and they will make it right for a reasonable cost.
Paddler
Daiwa SLD30
Linear Mode
