Repairing of Penn Senator 9/0

Penn Senator 9/0

It was like a scene from the “Wicked tuna”, only at the Adriatic Sea close to Bar in Montenegro. After almost eight hours of fighting a fish, Peen Senator 9/0 failed at its only weak point.

Author: Igor Peric

Penn Senator 9/0 – older model made in USA - has been brought broken and unusable after long fight at sea – the shaft was completely blocked. To make the situation even worse, a tuna succeeded to escape just before landing due to leader break. It was like a scene from  the “Wicked tuna”, only at the Adriatic Sea close to Bar in Montenegro. After almost eight hours of fighting the fish, Penn Senator 9/0 failed at its only weak point.

Repair service

Senator was all in pieces when has been brought to be repaired, disassembled by its owner. That is a least wanted situation for every repairman – it’s neither fun nor easy to assemble a reel that someone else took apart.

In my experience, a Senator is an old design star drag reel and I expected no problems in servicing. Attention should be paid to some details; patience is needed as well as knowing how to “synchronize” elements of drive and drag. 

Shaft and bridge

Drive gear had all teeth in place. Internal parts was covered with fine brass dust – the product of friction which caused heating of the drag, disks and drive gears – witnessing the Senator’s long fight with big tuna.

Before the problem was closely analyzed, everything leaded to conclusion that part which failed was bridge with sleeve.

New bridge with sleeve (on the left)

Deformation that caused gear blockage

Dismounting an old sleeve from a bridge to mount a new one  would be inefficient in this case and final result would be questionable.

The best solution was internet shopping for bridge with sleeve. Following photos show other parts of the reel and can help to recognize a bridge position:

Part of the housing that holds drive gear

Spool release lever elements

Bridge, shaft, drive gear, drag elements, drag star...

... and all apart 

This gear drives spool

Finishing touch

When assembling the reel, the most challenging part could be placing the anti-reverse dog back to its position. It is needed to be placed properly and spring loaded.

Placing of the drive gear in its "pocket"

Before that gear shaft is taking its place, then bridge with sleeve takes its position but need to be rotated and moved aside so anti-reverse parts could be mounted.

Little tactic is needed for this: one hand holds pinion yoke and pinion while other hand put other parts in their positions. It could be difficult for the first time so taking a look at following photos can, hopefully, facilitate all process.

Anti-reverse elements setting 

Dog took its place 

Bridge rotated until all four screw holes are visible

From the other side: screws join housing and bridge with drive elements in between

Thin layer of grease covering a frame  

Spool goes back to its place...

... as well as drive mechanism...

... and Penn Senator is in one piece again.

The reel is tightened thanks to new parts and now works properly. Penn Senator is ready to fight and land some other big fish.