Mitchell Reel Forum

Hi folks,
I have a 1954 Mitchell 300, on which the pick-up trip lever recently broke. I got an 81020 replacement trip lever, and discovered that it’s from a newer version of the reel and not compatible. The correct trip lever is identified as #20 on old part diagrams (thanks for posting, Bill). Does anyone sell replacements of this older-version part? Barring that, will a newer baffle plate fit this reel and work with the 81020 lever in the 1954 reel?
I’d rather find the original part, if possible.
Thanks for any insight,
Tim

Tim,
Occasionally, Mitchell parts and part numbers can be confusing.

Sometime after Garcia took over Mitchell reel servicing in the U.S., the part numbering system was changed. (It was rumored this was so Garcia could enter the part numbers into a computer.) Anyway, they went from the original Mitchell part numbers for service parts, which were two digits, to a new five digit system, with several exceptions. (The part numbering system was changed again, as time went on, but that's another story.)

The five digit part number, for a Mitchell 300 trip lever is #81020 as you mentioned. In the image below you can see that in 1971 they were using the new 5 digit part numbers, followed or sometimes preceded by, the old part number in parenthesis. (Could it be the service shops were getting confused?)
So the old two digit part number, for the trip lever was #40 as shown above. The number #20 was given to a spool pawl screw on very early spools. (In time, the spool pawl design changed and the screw was eliminated, so that number #20 was dropped from part lists from then on.) Could it be that someone identified the trip lever #81020 as #20 leaving off the other digits?

Now, about the trip lever itself. The fourth version Mitchell 300 reel, was the first Mitchell 300 to have a full bail. Earlier Mitchell 300 reels had a half bail. The new full bail trip lever, with part number #40, was introduced. The design of this trip lever evolved over time, as did many of the Mitchell 300 parts. The first (full bail) trip lever was made of two components, the steel body and a steel rivet. The end of the trip lever body, that stuck outside the rotor, was saw toothed. This was done so that the user could release the bail manually, if needed, while in the bail was in the cocked position. To release the bail you were to use your fingernail to pull the trip lever away from the bail arm notch, thus releasing the bail.
The rivet which was attached to the other end of the trip lever was used to secure the end of the trip lever spring to the trip lever. (Shown in your photo above) Eventually the rivet was eliminated, thus reducing the number of components needed for the trip lever and saving $$$$.

Fast forward to newer later trip levers. Gone is the rivet, gone is the saw toothed end, and even the type of plating on the steel was changed. But, the new and improved versions were all engineered to be universal in design. By this, I mean that Mitchell decided that if you were to take a new and improved part and put it on an old reel, it would still work. It was this way for almost all parts that were sold as service parts. I don't know what part you got that wouldn't work but it must not be the correct trip lever for the reason I just explained.
Below, please see another schematic/parts list for a 5th version Mitchell reel. The design of the trip lever has not change much and you can use the list to help find parts if you ever need to. As far as baffle plates and trip levers, they were all designed to work together regardless of when they were made. I have not tried using old parts with new parts myself because as a collector I am more interested in the original correct parts. I guess the best answer I can give you regarding whether or not the two will work together is that they should.

Finding parts for the Mitchell 300 can usually be done on eBay. People even take apart the reels and sell the parts individually. I have spent many hours searching there, sometimes successfully sometime not.
Best of luck.

Kind Regards,
Bill

Dear Bill,

I got the #20 from this 1951-1955 part diagram that you posted on 2 August 2021. Then I see that it's called a #42 in the 1956 diagram you attached below. I believe that either I recieved a part labeled "81020" that is incorrectly labeled, or that this is a tolerance issue between parts that "should" work together, but were never actually built into new reels together. I'll bet this can be fixed wiht a little creative shimming or by finding the 1951-1955 version trip lever on ebay, as you suggest.
Thanks for your narrative about the evolution of these parts - very interesting!

best regards,
Tim

Update: I was able to get this working, using the new 81020 pick-up trip lever, by adjusting the shims that space out the baffle plate.
Thanks again!
Tim

itimbomail wrote: ↑Fri Jan 31, 2025 6:49 pm Dear Bill,
I got the #20 from this 1951-1955 part diagram that you posted on 2 August 2021. Then I see that it's called a #42 in the 1956 diagram you attached below. I believe that either I received a part labeled "81020" that is incorrectly labeled, or that this is a tolerance issue between parts that "should" work together, but were never actually built into new reels together. I'll bet this can be fixed wiht a little creative shimming or by finding the 1951-1955 version trip lever on ebay, as you suggest.
Thanks for your narrative about the evolution of these parts - very interesting!
best regards,
Tim

Tim,
Sorry it took me a while to get back.
Glad to hear you were able to make your reel work and perhaps that is all the information you need.

I should like to offer the following apology to my fellow Mitchell Mates who are not from the U.S.
Some of us who attempt to answer questions on this forum (Namely Me) have a habit of falsely assuming the person who's question we are answering is from the U.S. I can't tell where the poster is from at first glance, and if they are from somewhere other than the U.S., or their question involves Mitchell reels which were sold outside the U.S., then what I am saying may not apply.
I need to remember that Mitchell reels were sold all over the world, and I have read there were something like 83 different country's. Since Mitchell was French there is somewhat of a language barrier which was a problem since the start for those of us in the U.S., and other English speaking country's.
I will try and keep in mind that I should not assume the question is coming from the U.S. or that the reel we are talking about is a U.S. reel.

If I may, I would like to answer Tim's question for anyone who may be curious about Mitchell part numbers and names and who finds the subject interesting like me.

So we sort of left off with two different part numbers for the same part, namely the Mitchell 300 Trip Lever with part number 81020, #20, and #42. We discussed that the early part number for this part was #42 which was later changed to 81020 by Garcia. That's the U.S. part of the story. Our distributor was Garcia and that is who published our literature for Mitchell.
Below is the Garcia Owners Manual showing the 1955 trip lever. Also be aware this is the trip lever for the full bail Mitchell, the 1/2 bail trip lever is very different. I posted at the beginning of this topic an image of a later Garcia part list showing the trip lever as part number 81020 which as I mentioned happened later on and was done by Garcia.
So you might ask where did the #20 come from which is the number given to Tim when he tried to purchase a replacement? It came from the U.K. Owners Manual which was supplied by the U.K. distributor named Millard Brothers, Ltd. or Milbro.
If you look at the earlier post in this string you will see an image from the 1955 Milbro Owners Manual with the part number shown as #20.

Non U.S. literature (Non-Garcia) is sometimes different as our example of the trip lever part number illustrates. So who is right? Well Mitchell is the source that changed the part numbers from two digit to five digit, adopting the Garcia naming convention I spoke about earlier. The distributors, were going from the information Mitchell provided.

I hope this clears this up for my fellow mates but if not I should hopefully be standing by, unless I am outside shoveling snow. LOL
Kind Regards,
Bill

Hi Bill,
Thanks for this additional insight about non-US part numbers. I never thought of that!
Regards from California,
Tim