Design flaw in the new 'i' series 7000 reels.

[Ken D]

There is a design flaw in the new 'i' 7 reels. The end caps are not bored all way through.... they have a 10 mm outer bore, to let the bearing in, and then a small 3.X mm rear, for the axle stub to go through.

 

I just fought with this setup, a few days ago, where the bearing was frozen via rust, into the housing. I wound up drilling out the rear, to 5 mm, so I could access the inner race of the bearing to pound it out.

 

The factory 3.x bore does not permit any kind of tooling to get to the bearing shoulder, to release it, and the 3 mm bore of the bearing does not permit any tooling to get to the underside of the bearing to attempt to easily shoehorn it out of the boss.

[Ken D]

Just got another one in today, but this one's worst case scenario. Zero maintain by the sport, in a salt water fishery, led to the axle shaft fusing to the bearing. Not possible to use a drift on the wee axle stub to pound it out.

 

So, it's locate a diamond bur, and cut the bearing into chunks to get it out of the boss, then drill the backside in case just the bb sticks next time.