300 Taiwan made

[don309]

I have a 300 here made in Taiwan. I work mostly on 204 & 308's, one of my flea market vendors ask me to put a bail spring in it.
My problem is every time I seat it, the bail locks over, turn the rotating head and it pops out. The hardware looks original, but is sloppy. But I don't believe I have seen Philips screws on a Mitchell.
Guess my question is there a spring just for this reel?

[Bailarm]

As far as I am aware you use the original bail spring. I've only repaired a few and I have none here currently.

Have you seen Wallace's excellent method of fitting them?

I tried to find it for you so I could add a link, but I can't seem to find it today......


Got it! 4' 16sec in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_muYtp4J5f4

[Ed Horan]

Here's a youtuber's approach to what Wallace does in his video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O9aiiscTO4. I've used this channel to fix a number of reels. Dennis calls his channel 2nd Chance Tackle and he repairs all sorts of reels, including Mitchell. His channel started out as an instructional channel for repairing conventional reels such as Penn and Ocean City. He's been posting daily during the pandemic and his repairs to most spinning and conventional reels are easy to follow. He also offers his services to viewers and can be contacted by e-mail, found at the end of his videos. He has an easy going approach to reel repair and his techniques are a breeze for me to follow. Dennis always cautions his viewers on these older reels as parts are either hard to come by or not available. I offer this up as reference as I feel most of us have at least one reel that isn't a Mitchell.

[don309]

Thanks Ed!
Big fan of youtube! I know Dennis and have talked a few time in email. My problem is not getting the bail spring in, it's having it stay in. Due to slop movement in the plate. Going to try a tiny washer in front of the screw. Maybe even trying to bend up the end of the spring to get deeper it the hole of the plate.

[Wallace Carney]

Don, There's 2 things you can do. The first is to spread the bail spring making it taller. The other thing you can do if you have one, is to replace the bail spring with a 307 bail spring.

I've had this problem in the past and have done both of my suggestions, and they work. Good Luck, Wallace

See:

MITCHELL GENERAL BAIL SPRING CHART 1989 MANUAL.jpg (252.9 KiB) Viewed 3604 times

[don309]

Thanks Wallace, I did try spreading and bending a 300 spring. With no luck. I even tried putting a washer in front of the screw to take some slop out of it. By the way love the chart it's in my files now. Also I think I'm as good as you now at the 300 bail spring, put this one in at least a dozen time. I won't give up I'll figure something out, or maybe someone else will.

[Schrack]

I think I have one of these, I bought it new and on the first cast the plastic bail arm broke, It set for about 10 years, and I put an old metal ass. on it and works fine, but still hangs on the rack.
I could not buy parts for it.
Called Mitchell and was told not to modify it they did not know old parts would work!