I am no reel guru , this serve as a guide for novice like myself to start servicing their own spinning reels, in particularly the Daiwa Certates. The attached pictures are taken from a 3500HD model. The Schematics I used is for the normal 3500/4000 model, almost 95% similar. Other model of certate are also almost similar except for the size of the parts. Feel free to correct me if you see something wrong.

Bearing size: The index number on the left is with reference to the schematics.

26) 3.0 x 6.0 x 2.5mm
46) 9.0 x 17.0 x 5.0mm
49) 7.0 x 11.0 x 3.0mm
74) 8.0 x 14.0 x 4.0mm (x2 pcs)
62) 6.0 x 10.0 x 3.0mm
9) 9.0 x 12.0 x 3.5mm

Some of the tools, grease and lubricants I used for the job. Get some good quality phillips screw driver in various size, not those from $2 shop.


This is for novice, so I am going to go really slow.

Unscrew the handle.


Unscrew the drag knob.


Remove the spool.


Remove the screw holding the rear cover.
Remove the rear cover.


This is the body without the handle, spool and rear cover.


This is the part I dreaded most.
Locate and remove the collar retainer clip, it sits inside a slot just above the collar. It is a very thin stripe of metal wire. You have to dig it out with a sharp object, do it carefully.


This is the tiny clip.
You can use staples No.10 as replacement if you loses it.


Next to go is the collar. In the picture you see a bearing in replacement of the collar, an upgrade which I feel is not necessary. Anyway the bearing size is 8x12x3.5mm in case you want to replace yours.


With the collar bearing removed, you can see the slot where the clip sits. And below the slot is a hole with a pin in it. Push it with a sharp object.


And the pin will come out from the other side. I forgot to take the dimension of this pin, it should be easily available in hardware shop.


Now you can slide the whole spool click assembly out.


You are left with a nut and a screw, remove the screw first.
If the nut is sitting too tight against the screw, loosen the nut just a little bit.


Remove the nut.


Now it should look something like this.


The rotor is free and can be remove from the body.


This is what is left on the body.


Let’s take a closer look.
The orange thingy is the AR(anti-reverse)-bearing.


Remove the 2 screws, follow by the AR-bearing retainer.


There are the clutch cam retainer and the clutch cam sitting on-top of the AR-bearing.
Notice how the clutch cam is connected to the Anti-reverse lever. And how the retainer sits on the 2 slots of the body.


You can remove the cam and retainer one by one, or simply dig out the whole AR-bearing with everything sitting on top. We will take a closer look at this assembly later.


Below the AR-bearing, there is another plate (bearing retainer) held together by 3 screws. Remove the 3 screws.
Make sure you get the correct size screw driver for this job.


Remove the bearing retainer.


Now let’s leave the body aside and take a look at the parts we have taken out.


Notice the 3 slots in the AR-bearing. The 3 and 9 o’clock position slots are for the cam retainer. The 6 o’clock slot is for the clutch cam. The AR-bearing is also call the roller clutch.


More close-up shots of the AR-bearing.



Let’s go back to the body.
I would leave the pinion gear assembly alone and proceed to remove the main gear first.


My reel is a left handed.
Remove the 3 screws that held the left side plate to the body.
Keep in mind which screw for which hole, there are of different length.


Remove the left side plate.
You should see the main drive gear and a bearing on-top of it.
Bearing size: 8x14x4mm
Still not able to remove the main gear yet.


Now go-to the right side and remove the 3 screws that held the engine plates.


The engine plate might not come out.
Unscrew the handle cap just a little, no tool require.


Slip your fingernails into the slot and pull the cap together with the engine plate out. It should not be too difficult.


You should see the other side of the drive gear and a bearing.
Still not ready to pull the main gear out yet.


Go back to the top and now you should be able to pull out the whole pinion gear assembly by gripping on the shaft of the pinion gear (brass).


Let’s set this aside and see what we have in this pinion gear assembly that we just pull out. There should be 7 parts.


There are only 5 parts here. That means 2 more parts is still inside the body.
Take note of the pinion washer, it is so thin it can easily be miss.


Before we go to look for our missing 2 parts, let’s go back to the main gear, which should be loose now.
Wiggle the bearing out from the right.


With the right side bearing out, the main gear should come off easily.


Continue to find the 2 missing parts. If it did not drop out while you are pulling out the pinion gear assembly, it must be still inside the housing.


I used a toothpick to push from below. There is a teflon collar underneath the bearing.


There is the bearing and the teflon collar.
Take note of the direction of this teflon collar. This is important, your reel will not work if you install it the other way.


Here we have all the 7 parts from the pinion gear assembly.
Bearing size:
7x11x3mm
9x17x5mm


With the pinion and main gear out, you should be able to wiggle the shaft out from below.


The last thing to remove is the Osc gear. Remove the screw holding it. It is very tight.


There is 1 small bearing in the Osc gear.
Bearing size: 6x10x3mm


There you have it.


This is all I will do, I will leave the drag compartment , bail arm mechanism and line roller alone.
You should be able to search for the maintenance procedure for these 3 compartments separately.

I also did not remove the Anti-Reverse lever and cam spring.
While washing the body, the spring pops out. So be very careful after you have remove the side plate. Any movement on the lever and the spring will pop free.


I do not service my reels regularly, I only do it when I feel there is a problem with it.

My usual practice for spinning reel after usage is a light shower; air-dry; oil the line-roller, bail arm mechanism, handle knob, the 2 main gear bearing at the handle and all other expose screw-head. You do not need to take apart the reel to do all these. I will also use a brush to apply a thin coat of Reel-X on the spool lip.

I will not go into the part about de-greasing/washing of the parts. I believe there are a lot of information on the web about these. Same for maintaining bearings. Sometime it is not easy to locate which is the bad bearing. I check them by turning them close to my ear, you can hear a grinding sound for a bad one.

Almost every Daiwa spinners I open up, I will find rust around the AR-bearing, usually on the outer metal casing, sometime the rust will migrate into the internal and affect the smoothness. You can flush a rusty AR-bearing with oil, then wipe it very clean. Too much oil left behind and you will lose the “infinite” function on the Anti-reverse.

The best known method for AR-bearing is a very light dose of Reel-X, and strictly no grease or you will lose the Anti-Reverse.

But for this time, I did apply a thin layer of grease to the outer metal casing, strictly not on the inner core. Make sure no grease ever make their way to the inner core of the AR-bearing. If you experience AR failure after servicing your reel, check and clean the AR-bearing, must be free from grease.

After cleaning/washing the body and parts, leave it to air-dry before applying a thin layer of grease all over everything.
OK, now we are ready to assemble all the parts together.

First to go in is the Osc gear, this one should be easy.


Next is the shaft, you have to make sure the slot on the shaft sits nicely on the stud of the Osc gear.


You can work the shaft up and down, the Osc gear should rotate nicely.


Next, assemble all the 7 parts of the pinion gear assembly together.
The direction of the teflon collar on the left of the picture is very important.


Slide the whole assembly along the shaft and into the housing. You may have to wiggle your way in.
The next picture shows a little bit of bearing expose, this should be the correct way.


The next picture here shows what happen if you got the direction of the teflon collar wrong, the whole bearing goes into the housing and you cannot see it.
Hmmm ….. Did I get myself mix up? We can check again later.


Install the bearing retainer and the 3 screws. You really have to be careful on the 3 screws, can easily mess up the thread.


Your pinion gear assembly is now secure, let’s move on to the main gear.


Wiggle your main gear into position, you may have to move the Osc and pinion gears a bit so that everything mesh together nicely.


Go to the right side and put on the right side bearing. Do it slowly, and do not use force. It should pop in nicely if you align everything correctly.


Here it goes.


And follow by the left side bearing.


Install the engine plate back on the right with the 3 screws, tighten the handle cap.


Install the left side place back on with the 3 different length screws.


Now is the time to put back the AR-bearing.


I will put the cam retainer and the cam onto the AR-bearing first, before installing the whole thing into the body.

Take note of the 3 slots. You may have to turn the orange thing a bit to get everything to settle in nicely.


There are 3 slots on the AR-bearing and there are also 3 slots on the body for the cam retainer and cam to sit in.
The clutch cam must also sit into the Anti-Reverse Lever.
You may have to turn the orange thing a bit here and there to get everything into place.

Everything should be flush with the body.


Finally, install the bearing retainer and the 2 screws.
At this point you can install the handle and try turning it, if there is grinding sound, very likely you have install the teflon collar of the pinion gear assembly in the wrong direction.


Put on the rotor.
Install the nut first.


Follow by the screw.


You can now put on the spool click assembly.
There is a hole in the shaft as well as the assembly. Align them together.


Insert the pin so the assembly is lock onto the shaft.


Next to go in is the collar (or in my case is a bearing).


Follow by the tiny clip. Push the clip all the way down to the slot on the shaft, locking the collar bearing in place.


And finally the spool, handle and the rear cover.

You are now ready to go fishing.



1 last pointer, the best place to service your reel is a mahjong table.

Thank you! Very useful article. Mine has been giving me problems even after sending out for servicing. Now, I can try to find out what's wrong.

good effort. thks

Bravo!

hi bro i have problems removing the 2 screws on the AR bearing retainer.... damn bloody tight.. any advice?

Well done bro......

2 thumbs up for u.
jus checking, u greased ur bearings or jus a hint of reel x in it?

yes that 2 screws are very tight, i think the factory put lock-tight on the thread. You just have to make sure you got a correct size screw-driver with power handle for the job.

make sure you align the driver with the screw properly before you apply force. took a bit of courage to do that, if you fail, you'll ground the screw head.

you can try some reel-X oil on the screw and wait several hrs to loosen things up.

good luck!
-----------------------------------

Wait till you get down to the 3 small screws below the AR-bearing, it's even smaller, be very careful.
Use correct size driver!!!!

Last edited by frank7 on Sat Feb 09, 2013 4:47 pm; edited 1 time in total

for small bearing, just reel-x follow by grease on the cover. i believe this will help prevent water getting into the bearing.

for bigger size bearing, i'll open up and flush with reel-x, then put grease inside follow by cover and grease on the cover. (as per alantani)

take note i refer to sponning reel, not casting reel where bearing got so much effect on casting distance.

for daiwa reel (which usually consist of normal greaseless bearing), I'll rather replace all the bearings(grease it first) if i can find them in the shop.

I rarely used back an old bearing.

Yup. Acknowledged on the need to greased the bearings but I tried tat way for spinning reels.
Doesn't seem to work well on my spinning reels... it slows down the oscillation when it spins.
Hence I flushed out the grease. I replaced it with open bearings.

I dunked the bearings in TSI 301. Let it dry b4 replacing it on e reel.
It worked really well since. Giving a smooth oscillation jus like brand new reel.

Cheers,
Yai

Nice write-up Frank. Have you wondered whether it's advisable to grease the screw thread on the top of the spool spindle?

The thread go through the disc drag washers/ fibre material. Fibre material have tendency of soaking oil/ grease which may result in a jerky drag when subjected to constant abrasion which generate heat and changes most properties of normal machine greases. Or when grease start to harden over time.
Which lead to the invention of drag grease
-present even amount grease to prevent reels from becoming jerky
-dissipate heat evenly by reducing drag-fibre friction which wears drag material in powdery substance. (It does lower drag lb, but recommended was to use in small amounts)
At high temperature incurred by constant abrasion from fish pulling hard at 1 end, properties of these drag grease changes the least and ensure smooth performance of drag. I find the drag grease thingy too cumbersome, will only keep the drags free of oil/ grease.

Just seeking your opinion. It may/ may not affect the way you fish.

i think you mean the spindle shaft. it has never cross my mind to grease that part bcos, it is the least likely place to get salted/ jammed.

i think no harm for a small dab of cal grease.
I used cal grease on all my drag.

thanks for the info, you must be a lurer !

I am not buddy.. I'm jus a student status on anything related to fishing.
Need to learn more on tis craft. But I do lotsa readings n understandings from FK n also alantani's site.
Gives good info n knowledge on anything related to fishing.

Cheers