Pflueger Supreme 1576: Putting the Handle Together

[Paul Roberts]

Help! if you can. I got myself into some trouble here.

The reel's handle is a nut that threads onto the main gear. In hand things rotate fine (see pic 1). In the faceplate though, the handle/nut tightens against the handle post (Pic 2). There is a bearing surface there, as if there should be an adjoining one. But I don't there are any lost parts. I don't get it.

This reel has a freespool mechanism, similar to the FS on the 1895 Akron. I've tried in and out of FS. It's as if the handle post/sprocket is too long, or the gear shaft too short. The handle just screws down until it's tight against the post. It then cannot rotate. I'm guessing this is a spatial reasoning glitch. What am I not seeing?

[Paul Roberts]

If someone has a schematic of the Supreme 1576 I'd be much obliged.

Figured out that I must put the handle assembly and faceplate together first, then attach to the rest of the reel. However, the reel is still somehow gumming up in the works, although perfectly clean inside. Something isn't meshing. It seems to be something in the freespool and slip-drag mechanism that's not right. I tried reversing the main gear's orientation, despite taking photos on break-down, to no avail. I can get close, the handle turning, but tighten the drag down at all and she binds up. There must be a protocol order for reassembly, of I have a part in wrong.

[Paul Roberts]

I've isolated the issue: On the frame side, the gears turn, the spool spins, the LW travels. On the face plate side, the FS works, the drag works, the anti-reverse works. But... once again, the handle -as a nut that threads down onto the main gear shaft- comes into contact with the crank post. The main gear shaft is too short, the threads should clear the post all the way so that the handle (as dual purpose nut) does not screw down onto the post! I cannot understand why this would be happening, unless this is not the correct gear -from another model year? Photo shows the threads (the silver colored ones) sticking up above the post, but not far enough. At its simplest, just the gear shaft sticking through, is not long enough for the handle to clear that post when screwed down. Everything else works.

Any ideas? Outside of grinding down the crank post? Or, more likely, what am I not seeing?

[Paul Roberts]

Figured it out! DOH! There is multi-lobed washer above the handle that fits into a small button on the handle (you can see it in the photo above). This does not allow the handle to tighten all the way onto the crank post that appeared to be causing the trouble. Doh! This washer is not unlike the star-cutout handle washers at the handle nut on more modern reels. Phew!

Mods can delete this thread if it's too obvious an issue and fix.