14 April 2009

Changing Roller Bushing to Bearing

One of the fav mod that anglers like to do is to change the roller bushing of their budget reel to ball bearing. A lot of budget reel are really easy, as the bushing as the same shape and dimension for a direct ball bearing replacement.

Shimano budget reel are a different beast altogether (might be just what I have), their bushing is of an odd shaped and the outer diameter is JUST slightly smaller then a standard ball bearing. This is what I have gotten to replace my Shimano Aernos XT to a ball bearing with a fair bit of work needed.
Original Bushing vs Modification
The black bushing and ball bearing is to replace the white bushing.

1. The roller ID measures just a little smaller then an standard ball bearing, so what is required is to grind the OD of the ball bearing to fits inside the roller.
2. The black bushing from another reel that I have replace it with a ball bearing, the OD fits the small groove found on the inside of the roller. The ID however is bigger then the ball bearing ID due to the the form of the assembly. However this is not an issue as this bushing is simply to act as a stopper to prevent the roller from slipping into the assembly.
3. The items are put in the order as shown in the pic, you might need a small thin shim to keep the roller bearing to come into full contact at the base of the assembly.
Prior to Final assembly

Points to note
1. The method of jamming the entire ball bearing into the roller works, without the need of any additional bushing. However, it is very difficult to remove the bearing when it got rusted. I will not recommend this.
2. If you cannot get any bushing like the black one I have, cut the original bushing. Remember you need the part with the 'lip' to prevent roller from sliding into the assembly. It is the cleaner white portion in the pic.
3. It is important to have the stopper bushing, once the roller slide into the assembly, your reel might not be able to lay the line correctly. You can use a bearing instead of a bushing if you find one that fits.

I will update further on the size of the bearings.




1 comments:

Alan chan said...

Great job there bro

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...