# A look inside a Penn International 80TW



## CarolinaNemo (Dec 11, 2008)

I thought I would take you through my recent experience with a new to me Penn International 80TW. Here it is with its smaller sibling, the 50TW.










My first impression was that it looked to be in pretty good shape. I checked most of the external screws to see if any were stuck right after I got it. All seemed OK except for the stand screws and studs. Fast forward a few weeks and I finally get to sit down and go through it. Stand screws wouldn’t budge, so I let them soak for half a day with penetrating oil. I thought for sure they were going to snap as I was backing them out, but luckily they didn’t. I did think there was some thread damage, however. Here is what I found.



















And the frame, very corroded.










Here is the after. It appeared to have heavy white salt/corrosion buildup that couldn’t be brushed away. I had to take a razor knife and scrape it away, along with part of the anodizing. 










Here is the progression as I went through the rest of the reel.

Everything laid out, ready to begin.










Reel separates easily into four pieces.










Left sideplate bearing, French? Factory or replacement? All bearings were the same as this one.



















Everything looked good, so it gets greased as well as the inside of the left plate.










Moving on to the spool.










Removed the clicker plate and bearing, everything got greased and reassembled.










Now, the left side of the spool. As I was disassembling the parts, I noticed a lot of regular grease in the drag area. Not good.










The drag washers had a fair amount of oily residue on them.









I set them aside and proceeded to clean and grease the spool ,bearing and bottom of drag plate.



















I cleaned the drag washers by wiping them off as much as possible, and then used a hair dryer to heat them up and hopefully get out most of any remaining oil and grease. These washers were a hard carbon fiber, not the softer weave that was in the 50TW. Is this the dura drag material, or original HT-100?










Drag washer greased with Cal’s, as well as the spool edges adjacent to the washer.










And the rest of the drag is assembled, with grease where needed.





































Completed left plate and spool.










Now, on to the right plate.



















Everything is disassembled, cleaned, and greased.



















Now, the four parts ready to go back together.










I used a tap and die to clean up the threads of the salt corroded stand screws and frame. Luckily, everything went back in fine, this time with PLENTY of grease under the stand and on the screws. If you get nothing else out of this, GREASE THIS AREA. Or, take it down for cleaning fairly frequently. 

This wasn’t a typical piece by piece tutorial, as many of the steps I left out have been covered in the rebuild threads of Alan’s and others. This reel seems to be extremely simple and strong. I left the spring washers in their stock position, as the drag felt very strong as is. I will probably check it with a scale later on, just to see what it is capable of. Looking forward to trying this one out!


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## buxrus (Jun 6, 2009)

Nice, informative work, thanks for sharing.


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## Dogfish Dan (Dec 8, 2011)

what do you have it spooled up with?


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## CarolinaNemo (Dec 11, 2008)

It will be spooled with 600 yards of Jerry Brown 130 lb hollowcore topped off with 150 lb mono. I am guessing 300+ yards should fit on top of the braid.


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