Take off the winding plate as you describe (first photo). The handle is riveted to the plate. That riveted connection loosens with time. If yours is tight, congratulations! You got a good one. Treat the reel well and oil the bearing points often.

Flip the reel. Unscrew and remove the spindle (unscrew counter clockwise). Using your finger nail or thin plastic, pry around the front cage (second photo, pry the seam shown by the green arrow). The cage pops apart with a little persistence (third photo). The cage design is light and fairly rigid, despite being held by that single connection.

Now the spool should drop from the frame, allowing you to clean and service the reel (final photo). The pawl tends to wear badly, so again if the pawl is in good shape, congratulations! Lightly grease the pawl and gear teeth.


Tom

Thanks! This forum is fantastic. I would never have been able to disassemble this reel on my own as it was stuck in place due to old grease that had glued the parts together. Even had doubts that I was going to be able to with the instructions, thinking my reel might be differently assembled. A sturdy chisel edged pocket knife finally did the trick.
Here is what it looks like:


I tried a vinegar/water bath, citrus remover and wd40 all to no avail. Finally reread the cleaning reel post on this forum - and saw that warm water was recommended and at least an hour soak. It’s soaking now. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Oh, the handle connection is fine, as is everything else that I can see other than the dried grease. I also saw on this site a recommendation for light oil rather than grease for some of these multipliers, not sure if that would be in order for this one, but since I have clock oil handy, I will start there.

If the hot water/vinegar soak doesn't work, I would put the parts in a jar of mineral spirits and soak them overnight. Don't use stronger solvents like acetone or lacquer thinner as they might leach out the color (they will certainly damage the plastic handle). Because this is an aluminum reel, please don't use steel wool or metal tools. Steel is much harder than aluminum and is likely to scratch.

Plastic and wood tools and soak in gentle solvents. Lots of patience.


Tom

ephemera, I just saw your pictures and the reel looks great.

Tom makes a good point, and I agree that you can inadvertently scratch or otherwise damage an aluminum fly reel through the aggressive use of coarse steel wool or metal tools. I apologize if my earlier comments caused any confusion. When cleaning a vintage reel I always start with the least aggressive method and move up from there. Sometimes a rinse in hot water, and a good wipe down with a soft rag will do the trick. I rarely get that lucky.

The diluted vinegar bath will do a good job loosening and softening the old grease, but it will not dissolve it. A soft rag, a nylon bristle brush (like an old tooth brush), and Q-tips will normally handle the bulk of the post soak cleanup. If those don't do the trick, I will move to the next step. I've had good results removing stubborn grease and discoloration/corrosion caused by decaying grease with careful use of 0000 steel wool wetted with WD40 or another gentle solvent. 0000 steel wool is a different tool than coarse grade 3 steel wool or the Brillo pad found in your kitchen. This super fine steel wool is used for polishing and buffing. I would not use it on painted or anodized surfaces, but I have used it on bare metal like that found on the underside of the head cap of the Bronson 380 and the outside surface of the spool that is covered by the head cap when the reel is assembled. Going slow and using gentle pressure are the keys to success.

I do not use a dental pick to "scrap" the metal surface, but instead use the fine point to gently "lift" old grease from tight spots that I can not easily reach with a rag, nylon brush or Q-tip. A wooden tooth pick can also be useful, but I find the fine point of the dental pick does a better job for me. Again, going slow and being gentle are the keys.

I hope this clarifies what I was talking about.

Although the takedown procedure isn't identical to the Bronson, other multipliers like the Martin MG-10 have a similar disassembly procedure.


The reels that follow the Hardy Perfect pattern like the Shakespeare 1899 and 1900, and the Stuart Single Action Trout Reel also have a somewhat similar dissassembly process.



Mike