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Donnie

I fished with garcia mitchells all the time when I was a youngster, intercoastal, the surf, the lake the river. After salt water, would run the reel flowing fresh water over it and reel it, the flip the bail over and over.

I found them on amazon a few months ago, and bought a Mitchell 300, 30 bucks, used it, very smooth , brought back good memories.

However, after a couple of trips, the thing locked up, had to almost muscle it to turn the crank. I thought, no problem, I will take the plate off and regrease it , etc. Took off the same screws but the plate would not come off .

Any ideas, other than the garbage can (where it resides at the moment)

DonnieS

joejoe7716 · Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2017 8:28 am Post subject:

I had a daiwa spinning reel that locked up on me a few years ago that fell the surf. You couldn't even turn the handle at all. I put it in a pot of water and boiled it for 20 or 30 min. I was able to open it and clean and lube it good and got a few more years out of it

Central Scrutinizer · Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2017 8:42 am Post subject:

landlocked beachbum · Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2017 9:17 am Post subject:

A few judicious "taps" with a hammer might do the trick, but except for old times sake..... there are many MUCH better spinners out there for the buck.

Have you tried takng something like a sharp chisel and tapping it into the separation?
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Dave

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has it's limits". Albert Einstein

landlocked beachbum · Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2017 9:18 am Post subject:

Donnie · Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2017 9:47 am Post subject:

Old Baitbucket · Finger Mullet Joined: 13 Jun 2015 Posts: 20 Location: OKC

I'm with you Donnie. Its hard to give up an old friend. I fished with my Mitchell 300 for over 30 years but it finally succumbed to the salt. After retiring it I have been using the cheap Shimanos in the 2500 and 4000 series. They are smooth and have held up surprisingly well. For me chunkin lures all day I like the 2500 but fishing with bait 4000 and up.

Donnie · Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2017 10:04 am Post subject:

jnd1959 · Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2017 10:57 am Post subject:

Soak it in simple green overnight and then see if you can separate the plate. Likely, you will need to clean out the old grease. See the Mitchell collectors website or alantani.com

Donnie · Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2017 11:12 am Post subject:

jnd1959 · Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2017 12:03 pm Post subject:

Not a problem. I've completely rebuilt a 306 recently. I also have my dad's 302 but I broke the eccentric lever trying to get it out. Parts are hard to find for some of these.

landlocked beachbum · Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2017 2:37 pm Post subject:

Donnie, Shimano anything is good, but I'm partial to the mid/high end spinners from Quantum. To me, the 3 most important features on a reel are drag, drag and drag, and the mid/high end priced spinning reels from Quantum have max drag capacity and smoothness in spades, second only to the very top end Shimano on the latter, for 1/4 to 1/6 the price. They are also top of the line in line capacity, another very important thing when going after hard fighting and/or large saltwater fish.

I enjoy using gear that most people think to be "light" for any kind of fish, and have shocked the bejesus out of more than a few party boat captains/hands with my "light" gear and it's ability to put BIG fish in the boat, and do it quickly!😎🤙
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Dave

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has it's limits". Albert Einstein

rodandroll · Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2017 3:12 pm Post subject:

Kerosene is also very useful for soaking parts, especially if you want to get rid of the water based moisture.
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landlocked beachbum · Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2017 6:59 am Post subject:

At the risk of stating the obvious, there's always good old WD40.... which stands for "Water Displacement formula #40".

Seriously, any reel that has such poor anticorrosive coatings that the side plate sticks to the body, has no place around the salt. A few years ago I was in Vero Beach, and went fishing at Secastion Inlet, south jetty. While landing a few jacks I had to get down in the rocks, and my reel was completely submerged, more than once. It became stiff almost instantly and was frozen up by the time I got home. Still, it all came apart very easily and after a good rinse with fresh water, spray down and clean wuth WD40 and a dab of Super Lube grease on the high load areas, it was working as good as new. That reel was a Quantum Accurist, not one of their high dollar models, and still going strong today.
_________________
Dave

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has it's limits". Albert Einstein

jnd1959 · Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2017 7:24 am Post subject:

I may have missed it as n the original post but usually these old reels are not corroded as much as gunked. The grease dries up and gets lodged in the gears. I've taken apart 60 year old Mitchell reels and while there is usually corrosion in the screws, there isn't much inside the reel. It all depends on how it was used. Found on the ocean floor, you have a corroded reel. Normal use, probably mostly dirty with external pitting.