Ray Clark
Well-known member
I have a Garcia Mitchell 408; I have cleaned it, lubed it, and it seems to operate smoothly, but it's stiff. The bale mechanism works decently. However, the reel requires moderate strength to operate. It's certainly not as "limber" as the new reels we can buy today. It feels like the grease inside the reel is very cold. There's no hangup or "rough spot" that I can detect in the mechanism. It's just harder to crank than I think it should be.
I inherited the reel from my Grandpa. He received it as a retirement gift about 1967 or so. The reel was one of his treasured possessions in his retirement. Now, 50 years since he passed, I'd like to use that reel in my fishing adventures.
My Grandmother gave the reel to me when I moved to Alaska with the military in 1983. I used the reel a few times while in Alaska, but it never seemed to work right. The reel was put away for safekeeping. Long story short, in 2019, I decided to get the reel out and see if I could put it back into service. I found a series of videos on YouTube that were very detailed in the break down, cleaning, and reassembly of the Mitchell 308. The process is the same for the 408. The videos were produced by the Mitchell Reel Museum and were very helpful.
The old grease (which I'm sure was factory original) was all gummed up. I carefully cleaned all the parts and found a plastic part inside the center portion of the mechanism that was broken. A quick search on eBay located a replacement part for $13 delivered. I put that in and reassembled the reel, using Penn grease for lubrication, just like the video showed. I also used some Penn Reel Oil on certain parts. But, it's still stiff.
Any ideas about how to get the crank mechanism to be easier to turn? I'm not really into collecting stuff for display; I'd really like to use this reel more. However, a day of casting and cranking with the reel would be much more enjoyable if it required less strength to crank.
I inherited the reel from my Grandpa. He received it as a retirement gift about 1967 or so. The reel was one of his treasured possessions in his retirement. Now, 50 years since he passed, I'd like to use that reel in my fishing adventures.
My Grandmother gave the reel to me when I moved to Alaska with the military in 1983. I used the reel a few times while in Alaska, but it never seemed to work right. The reel was put away for safekeeping. Long story short, in 2019, I decided to get the reel out and see if I could put it back into service. I found a series of videos on YouTube that were very detailed in the break down, cleaning, and reassembly of the Mitchell 308. The process is the same for the 408. The videos were produced by the Mitchell Reel Museum and were very helpful.
The old grease (which I'm sure was factory original) was all gummed up. I carefully cleaned all the parts and found a plastic part inside the center portion of the mechanism that was broken. A quick search on eBay located a replacement part for $13 delivered. I put that in and reassembled the reel, using Penn grease for lubrication, just like the video showed. I also used some Penn Reel Oil on certain parts. But, it's still stiff.
Any ideas about how to get the crank mechanism to be easier to turn? I'm not really into collecting stuff for display; I'd really like to use this reel more. However, a day of casting and cranking with the reel would be much more enjoyable if it required less strength to crank.
