A click from inside my "new" Flocast

[Frogmore]

RyanBurns and I have just done a swap - my Seldex for his Flocast Mk3 and Ambidex Mk1. I'm really pleased with both of them.

I've just stripped and cleaned the Flocast which is in great nick. It does have a little quirk though - when you wind with it upright or tilted to the right it clicks three times for every turn of the handle - most loudly when tilted. If you tilt it to the right it is "silent".

I have cleaned and lubed the helical drive and the oscillator shaft. The check seems to work fine.

Can anyone explain this and perhaps offer a solution?

Frogmore.

[Nobby]

This click is quite common on an Ambidex, I'm afraid.


Take the spool off and see if it still does it.



If the click has gone it probably means the rotor is bent from being dropped.


You'll invariably see a scuff mark inside the rotor where the paint had been rubbed off by the spool. Trueing the rotor up is fraught...they invariably crack as the cast metal is very fragile having crystalised over time. Moley has had some success by heating the rotor before squeezing it in a vice. If it's just a tiny rub, I'd be inclined to simply relieve that area with some 'wet and dry' to get rid of the rubbing.

[Frogmore]

Well done Nobby!

The gear ratio is roughly 3:1 so that explains the frequency of clicks.
My Mk3 Flocast has a Delrin rotor but you are right - there is a rub!
You'd think that Delrin would just bounce back but I have a theory ..........
The rub is at the non-line pick up end of the bale arm and if the reel had been dropped with that end taking the shock
the bale arm may have been slightly bent and hasn't allowed the Delrin to "bounce back".

I won't try bending the bale arm but I will relieve the rub with a bit of emery paper.
I'll let you know whether it works,

Frogmore

[Nobby]

Ah! Ta for that. So the Sealey Flocast Mark 3 is a 'plastic' rotored reel then?

Perhaps that explains why the later Allcocks Delmatic was called a Delmatic Two, the 'One' being the Sealey reel?


I had wondered how tough the helical gear on the back of the rotor might be, but SeanM has caught a few large barbel on his without issue, so I'm far more confident about them now.


I don't think the rotor is Delrin, just plastic, but I might well be wrong. Allcocks said the Delmatic Two was made for them as a budget reel, but I've often wondered just how much cheaper it was to cast a rotor in plastic rather than metal, particularly if you factor in the tooling costs?


Glad you have found the problem.

[Frogmore]

It did work.

I've also tried an alternative lubricant - Teflon lube for bicycle chains. The reel had some sticky grease (or de-natured oil) inside it and was a bit stiff. I flushed it out and used the Teflon lube which leaves a dry film. It is very free now but a bit noisier which is only to be expected because the spaces between components are no longer filled with cushioning material.

I'll see how it lasts.

Frogmore.

[SeanM]

I suspect that the rotor is made from ABS. Warming the rotor with a hair dryer and gently squeezing it at 90 degrees to the rub might work. Be careful though as these plastics will get brittle with age. The only problem I've had with a Delmatic rotor is that a bit of the location for the end of the bale arm without the line roller came away when I was playing a tench last year. This was probably cracked already though as I don't thing this area comes under much stress when playing a fish.

If the rotor is ABS then it will become brittle with time and exposure to UV light.