Shimano Sahara 2500 Issue

I have had this reel for years but it has started something really annoying on some casts the line does not hit the line guide groove correct and the line moves to the side and makes the reel hard to turn until I manually move the line to the groove.

Any ideas what would cause this?

Sounds like the bail spring may need to be replaced. You could try taking the bail assembly apart, cleaning & regreasing first. It's fairly easy to do. I bet Youtube even has a video!

The issue seems to be if you are looking at the line roller to the left where it meets the bail there is a small gap that is where line seems to get caught. I had it serviced over the winter at SW Parts took it back today the guy working said it was right and just tightened the screw that holds the bail assembly together. There is still a small gap made a few practice casts when I got home and yup still getting caught in that gap once ever few casts. I went to BPS and looked at all the Sahara’s they had out none had that gap. i will take it back to SW Parts and see what they can do not sure what else can be done. Maybe bail itself is bent or something I have no idea at this point.

Seems like the answer to my issue is go to heavier line. I had 8# on it when it was getting caught but changed to 12# and seems to have fixed the problem. Maybe not ideal but at least the reel is usable and seems to be working fine with the heavier line.

Sounds like a line washer or spacer is missing.
DIAGRAM

I just got back the same reel from being refurbished from Shimano. For 35 bucks plus shipping you can have a brand new reel.

That is interesting I had the reel at SW Parts but they said everything was intact according to the schematic.