Hey guys,

I have 4 yr old Shimano Chronarch CH100 BSV. I recently had it maintenanced at Southwestern Parts & Service so it's working like a champ (it was even before I had it serviced but thought it was time for a cleaning). I noticed the last couple times I went fishing that there is a "crunching" sound now when I cast. It occurs during the beginning of the cast as you basically start your swing during a normal, overhead, long distance cast. Obviously, this is when there is the most stress put on your reel except when you are hauling in a big fish. It happens even on baits I wouldn't consider heavy as most baits thrown with this reel fall in the 1/2-5/8 oz. category as it is my crankbait setup. If it helps, it's paired up with a 7 ft. All Star crankbait rod.

Is this the sound of the gears stripping? Bearings? Anyone have any experience with Shimano reels on issues like this? This is troublesome as I consider this a high end reel and built like a tank. I don't hear these sounds with my Revos or Curados and I haven't put a whole lot of hours in with this reel.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

I've had the same thing on a couple BPS reels and a Daiwa 153HSTLA.

On all those it was from the spool pin hitting the pinion, and it seemed to happen if the spool tension knob was VERY loose.

On all of them I just increased the spool tension a little bit and the problem went away.

Well, I do fish this reel with the knob tension pretty loose. The last 2 times I went fishing with it and noticed the crunching sound I was fishing spooks. I set the tension very loose so I can cast it a country mile.

Oh, I am using 12lb Trilene XL mono if that makes any difference. I know some might ask if I'm using braid as I know it can be hard on gear sometimes.

Do you know how to take it apart?

Could be a pawl spring or bearing retainer clip came unbottoned inside and is rubbing within somewhere.

Also, as aggiegolfer mentioned, if your spool tension knob is too loose, the spool will experience a slight left-right amount of 'slop'.

Do you have a better description of "crunching sound"? When I think of a crunching sound I think of crunching potato chips.

Hehe..not sure I can give a better description. It just reminds of what I would imagine small gears or bearings would sound like under stress. It is certainly either metal on metal, metal on plastic or plastic on plastic. Wish I could do a better job of describing it.

It's a different sound than what the spool makes when slopping back and forth even when it's very loose. Now, if having the spool loose like that causes other parts to rub together under stress, well then that could be it. I will tighten it up and try again out on Ray Bob in the morning.

I appreciate the input!

I'm not brave enough to take it apart but I may have to take it back to Southwestern and have them look at it. Maybe something happened when they put it back together after cleaning it.

I suggest you DO NOT use that reel if it's making any kind of a 'crunching' noise.

If something internally is messed up, trying to use the reel can make things worse.

I recently had a bearing retaner clip come loose within a Chronarch and after repeatedly trying to turn the handle, the retainer clip got caught between the pinion gear and main gear and trashed the brass pinion gear ($13.00 part)!

Take the side cover off & make sure on of the brake pins are tight & that one of the pins didnt fall out.

Like fishmagnet said it could be a bearing retainer clip in the side cover has popped out.

In my younger day I ran a motorcycle shop. You would have guys call in with the motorcycle running wanting to see if you could figure out the problem. lol

I know what you mean. Usually I can pinpoint the problem by a description but I not sure this time. The B series Chronarch doesn't have the spool clips like the previous model and the bearing retainers are on the outside of the bearing. The bearing retainer on the left side could have come loose but I don't picture a crunching sound. A loose brake weight post could also be the culprit but usually it makes a high pitched squealing sound. One possibility I thought of last night was that the brake case could be loose. When you tighten down on the tension knob it pushes the spool causing it sit too far to the left and maybe the line was rubbing on the frame as it came off the spool.

Just thought of this. Check your line. I see you're using Trilene 12# XL. How old is it? Old dry mono will make a crunching sound if it has a lot of memory. Have you sprayed your reel down with anything like CorrosionX or reel scrubber? I've seen where customers have sprayed their reel down with oil or cleaner and it soaks into the line causing the top 30 yards or so to be brittle. To me, brittle line = crunching sound.

I checked the brake pins and all seem to be tight.

Also, the line is brand new and the only thing sprayed on it is Reel Magic. I will pay more attention to it next time I go out and and see if it's just the line "crunching" down on the spool.

I tightened down the tension as someone suggested and put a Strike Kings Sexy Swimmer on it yesterday at Lewisville on some flats and couldn't repeat the sound. But, due to it's heavy weight and not really having the right rod for the bait, I wasn't slinging it like I do when there's a small spook on or a lipless crank so I'm not sure if tightening down the tension was the reason I couldn't repeat the sound or not.

I do appreciate all the great feedback though.