Ocean City 2000C Project

[Paul Roberts]

I have an OC 2000 C that needs some levelwind parts:
63-H Line Guide
71-K Worm (It appears this is one piece: The worm and pinion gears affixed. On mine the shaft is snapped! (See pic.)

Or, are there any OC collectors/parts folks I could contact?

Thanks,
Paul

[Paul Roberts]

Looks like Colby may have me covered with the parts!

Picked up the Ocean City 2000-C from a thrift store with LW not functioning. Popped the faceplate off and a gear fell out! Turns out it is the LW pinion and it had snapped off the worm-gear shaft. (See pic above in OP) The AB mechanism was not functioning either. The reel rattled noisily when spun so, before I starting looking for parts, I went ahead and tore it down to clean and lube, and polish the important parts. The externals I’ll worry about later.

The reel appears not to have been used all that much —still had the factory 'Assembler' identifier sticker on the foot. It also appears that it was handled roughly. And it may never have been serviced as it was dry inside with a small amount of (possibly original) grease. Apparently, when the LW was destroyed —how I can’t quite imagine— the reel was retired, then ended up, decades later, at a thrift store.

Upon tear-down, I was surprised how heavy the spool is, obviously weighted. As described in an ad: “Hollow spool is turned from a solid bar of Zephaloy (an aluminum alloy), dynamically balanced and precision centered permanently.” And “lightning fast”. Despite the weight, after cleaning, lubing, and polishing, the spool spins very well and fairly quietly. Since it’s missing its level-wind, it’s not comparable to other direct-drive reels I have, but it will spin for a full 20sec.

AB Mechanism Fix; Some things just take a Hammer!
I looked closely at the non-responding AB mechanism. I’m kind of fascinated by them —the engineering efforts to mechanically control spool inertia. And with such a "fast" and weighty spool I would think slow-down would be considerable; Could be a real bomber with a tailwind .

This reel has a nylon “block”, suspended on a spring, that contacts a widened piece on the spool spindle that appears similar in function to the Shakespeare Wondereel spool spindle, but quite a bit larger. OC advertises theirs as “the most effective casting aid yet devised”. That’s quite a boast with the SkilKast around. Remains to be seen.

The AB controller is a thin sheet-metal cam that contacts a similarly thin sheet-metal armature that depresses the spring, pressing the nylon block onto the widened spool spindle. However, on this reel the cam was simply slipping between the armature and the faceplate wall. I’m guessing this could be a recurring issue with these reels. Just a widened face at the contact area on both parts could have solved it. What to do with it? Another use for last-ditch JB-Weld?

Since they were riveted down, I couldn’t remove and reform them. There was, however, another sheet-metal bracket (that holds one end of the spring), and it overlaps the armature where the cam is supposed to make contact. All I could think of to do was to take a short piece of oak dowel as a punch —or bludgeon!— and give that little piece of sheet-metal a pop with a hammer.

I gave it two pops and lo and behold this bent the edge of the metal down onto the armature, re-aligning it with the cam! It worked! The AB mechanism now functions.
The shadow on the L edge of the bracket shows where it was bent down, holding the armature down for the cam to meet it.

AB in Off position:

AB in 'Full" On position:

Voila! Getting there. Another old reel may be back in service. And it’ll be fun to see just what this reel is all about.

[Paul Roberts]

Colby's well-described "beater" 2000C arrived, with an intact LW mechanism. And my 2000C is now fully functional. Another wonderful old reel resurrected.

The two reels -both "C"'s- had different pawls, possibly one was a replacement, and with the ruined LW mech I had, I checked the spec sheet to be sure I put the correct one in -the long one. Interestingly, the short one (from different whole reel perhaps) was paired with a spring to make up the length difference.

The good mechanism cleaned, polished, lubed, and installed, did the trick.


Apparently, the "C" version can be told from the "B" version by having a screw in the tail side end (oil) cap. The OC manual suggests that the spool tension not be altered from the fixed factory setting, but apparently reconsidered this (?) by adding an adjusting screw in the "C".

Colby had written an article on these reels for ORCA's Nov 2015 Reel News and told me that these are very well made reels. Apparently, OC went to town on this design. But there appear to be very few of them out there, at least from what I can find up for sale on-line. There is one out there now, for $125, that was cobbled from an "A" and a "C" version.

Mine is going to be fished. And I’m curious how it’ll perform. It’s the longest-spinning old casting reel I have, this one measured in seconds rather than LW passes! Without the LW it would spin for a full 20seconds. Now with the LW in place it still gives 11seconds. That’s two to three times what any other old reel I have can do.

That’s the scoop on this OC2000C. More, someday, when I can actually get out on the water with it.

[RonG]

Hey Paul,

That's an interesting description and documentation on how you rescued this nice reel.

[Paul Roberts]

Thanks, Ron. Maybe it’ll be of interest or inspiration to those with a 2000 that needs some work.

[Paul Roberts]

OK... more inspiration... This baby casts! The AB system does work. I'd say it, at this preliminary stage, that it rivals the SkilKast I have, in terms of distance and thumblessness. (Is that a word?) It also, so far, throws a 5/16oz plug the furthest of any reel I've tried so far. It seems the mass and spindle design of the spool keeps it spinning, which means it needs to be checked at the end, and the AB mech does indeed do that.

[colby sorrells]

Paul,
I see a Cycloid in your future! Keepin' It Fun! Colby

[Paul Roberts]

Oh no! What's that?? Dare I ask...