Such was the case for a particularly pretty Pflueger Summit and first string performer that I plan to fish with. However the handle clacks as I retrieve line. It's not intolerable, not rare either, but... why have a beautiful high quality reel that sounds... cheap? "Clack-clack, clack-clack-clack..."
Jiggling the handle I can not only hear but feel and see that the entire handle/main gear move: both up and down (the main gear on its post); and side to side due to tolerances between the main gear shaft and the sleeve in the face plate that the gear shaft rotates within. The movement is slight, but adds up when the line is retrieved quickly. "Clack-clack, clack-clack-clack..." "Enough already!"
I took care of the first —the up and down motion of the main gear on it's post— by cutting a small thin washer from a firm, thin (.007"), slick plastic sheet from some product packaging I'd scrounged. I scrounge promising materials whenever I see them. There are some impressive plastics, Mylar's, metals, and what-have-you's, that... might just come in hand someday. I cut the tiny washer (using a hole punch and scissors) to sit at the very bottom of the post for the main gear to ride on, effectively filling that void. And this did the trick. Again, the plastic material is very firm and very slick. With light synthetic oil it does not hamper the gear's ability to spin on the post.
Next I slipped a short length of heat-shrink tubing onto the shaft of the main gear for a sleeve bushing to fill the tolerance gap between the shaft and the face plate sleeve. And this did the second trick.
Closing up those tolerances quieted things down significantly. There is still a minor click, audible when retrieving quickly -some forward and back play in the handle/gear train due to teeth meshing. This might be due to wear but checking a half dozen other Pflueger DD's in reach suggests this is within the native tolerances for (albeit 70yr old) Pflueger DD gear trains. Excessive gear wear tends to produce a buzz, which none of my Pflueger's, and few of my DD reels period, produce.
So, how does that beautiful reel perform now, with those added parts? Certainly as well as she did prior. A quick test yielded 107ft with a 3/8oz bank sinker and 20lb PE braid. Voila! A high performing Pflueger Summit that casts like a demon and retrieves smoothly and quietly.
