I hope Alan Tani doesn't mind my borrowing his posting format here.
This is one of my Hoo-X reels that I've had since a little before the summer. I've since had it on 20-30 fishing trips and caught many fish with it. Suffice it to say that I really like these reels.
I decided to take one apart a few weeks ago just to take a look at the inside and change the harness lugs around to have a flat top. I found a pretty complicated antireverse system and I knew the "planetary" gearing was tricky, so I didn't go into any of that part of the reel. You can get to the spool bearings and clicker without taking down any of the gearing or shifter because those things are inside the right side plate and all slides off together.... Everything looks great. A little grit came in thru the harness lug holes but crusted up on the grease instead of harming anything. The drag also is in great shape, and that's what I wanted to look at mainly since some people have had problems with the dry carbon fiber drag discs in these reels getting salt on them. This reel has been as wet as you'll get one without throwing it into the ocean, and it's been cranked on as much as you'll ever crank on a reel... but I am not even going to clean the grease or oil off and put anymore on- everything looks good so all I'll do is whipe some of the grit away and put it back together. This this goes to show you that some reels require way less maintenance than others- this being in the former category of course.
First, I unscrew the 4 right side plate screws with a philips head. Then, the harness lug has two screws that take one of the hex wrenches that come with the reels. You don't have to remove these two screws and the harness lug in order to get the right side of the frame off, but I will take them out later in order to get the spool out of the frame and of course to flip the lug upside down since I use this reel to bottom fish and do not need the lugs sticking out of the top and into my hands.
Here's what the inside looked like when I opened it up. You can see a little bit of grit that got in through the harness lug hole in the top of the reel. It doesn't look like anything at all got in through the gap between the spool and the inside of the frame.
The antireverse system is not like the Pro series Avets, which have two large dogs that stop the spool. The swing bar you can see on top of the two gears here is what actuates the big antireverse dog that you see in the very top of the picture. This looks like something I don't want to mess with since I'm not familiar with it!
Note the position of the bar when I am pulling backwards on the reel's handle. It seems as though this is how Avet gets a silent retrieve on these reels without using a one-way antireverse bearing that usually blows out when it tries to withstand higher drag settings.
Also, note the matching mounting area for the anti-reverse dog on the right side opposite where mine is located. Perhaps this is done so they can use the same raw parts to make their left hand model reels. That's the only thing I can figure....
What's cool here is even the aluminum parts inside the reel are anodized blue in color. See the blue plate that holds the antireverse dog in?
Here is the titanium drag plate (left) and the carbon fiber disc, which Avet now glues to the side of the spool so that nothing can get underneath it to contaminate it. Their theory is that if stuff gets in on top of this disc, the next time the drag is used, it cleans itself off and continues operating smoothly. It looks like mine is operating fine.
Close up of the drag plate and the rubber-sealed stainless bearing on this side of it.
Close up of the drag washer and the drag spring that keeps the spool off the drag plate when the drag is not pushed that far forward. Below the washer, spring, and other washer, is the right side spool bearing. I am unscrewing the harness lug here, and you can see some of the salt and crap that got trapped in that area. This is a drawback to their design I think. I know they made the reel this way so that you could take the right side plate off easily with only 4 screws, but this design allows crud to sit there on top of these two screw heads. Grease on top will keep that from hurting anything though. [
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Here are the two washers and spring I mentioned above and the other side of the right side spool bearing. It is open on the inside side as is the larger left side spool bearing, that you'll see next. So they're sealed on the outside, and open on the inside.
Here's the larger left side spool bearing, which is open on the inside where nothing can get in to contaminate it (inside spool), after I slide the spool off the shaft. You can see the clicker under the left side harness lug, which I will switch around in a minute. Everything looks good. No corrosion... no sign of water intrusion, etc. in this side of the reel except a little around the harness lug, which is to be expected.
Here's the left side of the spool. Everything looks good. The black piece is what the clicker tongue contacts to make the sound when it's pushed on. I have not used this clicker at all I don't think- only to hold the spool a little when the reel is being stored... so I don't know how well this part of the reel would have held up if I had been trolling with it or something.
Here's the spool shaft pulled out of the frame. Sorry this pic is a little fuzzy. The large left side spool bearing is the last bearing on this side of the reel. There is a pin that goes thru the base of this spool shaft that keeps the shaft from turning (sorry the picture isn't sharp enough to see this). The spool only floats on the spool bearings, and the only thing that can turn it inside the reel is contact from the drag plate.
The shaft sleeve you can see laying in the background above is basically a spacer between the right and left spool bearings. In the foreground, is the outside of the right side spool bearing, which is sealed, and another spacer and the bellville washers where the clearance is fine-tuned to put out the proper drag range. This is one of the areas where some people add or remove washers to hotrod these types of reels. Some people say that changing the configuration of the washers will change the reel's drag. I leave them as they are.
I've unscrewed the two harness lugs here on the left side of the reel, and now I'm putting them back in with the lug turned around.
Now, I've put everything back into place, but I forgot to put the right side lug in before I put the right side plate on. Doesn't matter... I can still move it between the slide plate and right side plate allow the two hex-head screws to pass through it.
Here's what the reel looks like with the lugs turned down.
AVET HX5/2 reversing her harness lugs- a pictorial 
