Penn 320 GTI fix up

[reeljob]

Someone was talking a while ago about rebuilding Penn 320's- I just put mine back together. It an easy reel to fix- nothing really springs out. Greased the ht100 washers w/ shimano drag grease, removed the bearing shields permanently and lubed them better, adjusted the shape of the belleville washere that had been flattened somewhat, and replaced the stock rubber handle with an old marbelized wood senator handle. Great improvement to this reel, only took about 30 minutes. If you have some of these, doing this can only help. If you can get the senator handles that fits this reel(not sure what size), it is much better than the stock one.

Has anyone removed the levelwind from the reel? If so, how does this affect the reel. I don't like it much, but I don't want to take it off and mess it up.

[alantani]

most excellent! the level wind assembly and left side plate idler gears can be removed, resulting in a very powerful live bait reel, well suited for 50# spectra and a 30-40 # topshot. the "4/0" side plate can easily deliver 25#'s of drag, more than you would ever need. well done!