# Abu Garcia Revo Toro NaCl 60HS Service Tutorial



## CoralSeas (May 2, 2012)

*Abu Garcia Revo Toro NaCl 60HS Service Tutorial*

Hey guys,

And now for something completely different...at least for me, anyways . The Abu Garcia Revo Toro NaCl 60HS is a heavy duty saltwater bait caster that has been out for a little while now so we'll take a look at how to service the reel and protect it from saltwater. Of course, we will also give a look inside for guys considering them for their quiver who want to see the guts.

This service post is also coinciding with my own interest in this category of reel due to their terrific performance casting straight braid thanks to their level wind mechanisms and centrifugal casting brakes. Straight braid has become the â€œgo toâ€ for many light tackle saltwater casters of swimbaits and hard baits etc for the positive hook sets and ability to pack heavy line onto a small, light, but very potent package.

I think we'll find the Revo Toroâ€™s strong reputation is well founded as a solid reel for this emerging niche in saltwater fishing.

Meet the Revo Toro NaCl 60HS:









The wide angle lens I use for service posts always makes smaller reels look larger than they really are as the reel is only about 80mm long (~3 inches) and the spool width 40mm (~1.5 inches). The standard handle shown is 100mm or about 4 inches long. This is of course a "low profile" reel and has a height of only about 45mm (1.75 inches) over the reel seat and it all fits very nicely cradled in the hand.



The Bass guys may think it's huge but it's pretty small for a saltwater conventional .

Of course, given it's compact dimensions and weight (11oz) it does not have an enormous line capacity but Abu Garcia rates it for about 300 yards of 30lb braid and a max drag of 20 lbs. This should give us quite an interesting package of abilities for light tackle applications nearshore/offshore (schoolie tuna and jacks or big Stripers).

Opening the left side of the reel is intended to be as needed over the day to manually adjust the centrifugal brake depending on casting needs and we can start there with the thumb operated Cam Lock Screw (51) but it may be a little tight out of the box and need a slotted screwdriver to get it started:



This permits a clockwise rotation of the Palm Side Plate (82) and it will lift off:



Giving us this view of the left side. The orange buttons you see there are the Brake Weights (78) that can be clicked "on" as needed to adjust braking depending on lure weight or wind conditions:


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## CoralSeas (May 2, 2012)

The Spool (77) lifts straight out:



A closer look at the Brake Weight Cover (97) held by 3 Screws (98).



Giving us this view of the left side. The orange buttons you see there are the Brake Weights (78) that can be clicked "on" as needed to adjust braking depending on lure weight or wind conditions:



The Spool (77) lifts straight out:



A closer look at the Brake Weight Cover (97) held by 3 Screws (98).



A small Retainer (81) above, holds the Spool Pinon Gear (82) which we need to remove to service the left side Ball Bearing (79):





A note here on Bearings...The bearing that you see here has removable shields and the remnants of blue grease that I had applied. This is a Spool bearing and for maximum speed (potential distance) the shields could be removed and the bearing lubed with your choice of speed oil (ie TSI 321 or Reel-X etc) and the bearing left "open". Being just an avid amatuer, and not a tech center stocked with replacements, I prefer to "let sleeping dogs lie" and leave the shields intact and oil them from the outside.

As well, keep in mind one of the fine qualities of these reels are their braking systems to slow them down. Fishing a live bait faster is nearly always better, but for casting artificials there is a line of moderation that keeps our reel more easily manageable and produces fewer overruns. IOW, I rarely am concerned with max speed and am more concerned with ease of *regular* maintenance for reels I will use for casting artificials.


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## CoralSeas (May 2, 2012)

The right side spool Ball Bearing (79) gets a similar treatment. Note the light coat of marine grease I added to the spool to protect it:



The Brake Weight Cover has been removed here to show you the proper arrangement of the Weights (78) and their Springs (96). They will drop right out of there with the cover removed. Careful with the bits!:



These are best left clean and dry (no oil or grease) to allow complete freedom of travel. Even oil over time can turn to "varnish" that will gum them up. It should be noted that Abu's "Sealed Centrifugal Brake" is not truly sealed (waterproof) but the mechanism is not completely "open" like other reels either. The Abu Garcia solution is the Cover keeping the small parts where they belong but allowing easy access for adjustment.

On the back side of the Side Plate is the Bearing Housing (93) held by 3 Screws (94). It also houses the "race way" for the Brakes to interact with which should be kept clean. On other reels the raceway occasionally gets a very light oiling if the brakes are howling:



The back side of the Housing mounts the Middle Gear (89) which drives the Worm Shaft (more on that later). The Middle Gear would need to be removed to get to the Click Spring (87) if required, but it was not removed for this service:



The Palm Side Plate (82) has the Click Claw (85) if you need to take care of it held by it's Retainer(86) going on the backside of the Click Button (83):



The sideplate material appears to be a high impact resistant synthetic composite. I will let the gentle reader translate that . Pretty much the industry standard for this class of reel.

To finish up the left side we should address the end of the hardened brass Worm Shaft (10) whose gear can be seen here. It is removed via the right side however and so only the final prep of the frame is seen here. We want a light coat of grease on all Frame (1) surfaces to protect the "X2 Craftic" alloy Frame (proprietary corrosion resistant aluminum alloy):



To get the right side off (Gear Side Plate) we do need the spool removed however to access a Screw (75) that is otherwise covered by it:



Then we need to remove the Handle (71) via the Handle Nut (72) which is kept tight by the Handle Nut Cover (73) that is anchored on the handle with the Screw (74). A Washer (70) is seen on the underside of the handle (stuck on with a little grease, we like this ).


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## CoralSeas (May 2, 2012)

The complete assembly removed:



(Above) the bottom row (L to R) are the Spring Washers (65) which go in () orientation. The Click Spring Holder (66) followed by a smaller set of Spring Washers (68) again in () orientation, then the Star Wheel (69) which may or may not have a small washer (shim) inside.

The Gear Side Plate (50) comes completely off of the Frame by removing 2 Screws (55) and the Screw (76) that also retains the Lube Port (54) shown here with the Brake Knob:



While we're at it we may as well take a closer look at the Brake Knob (64) assembly.



Above (L to R) there is the pinion Ball Bearing (57), it's retaining Ring (58), the Click Washer (59), Click Spring (60) and the second Click Washer (63) that goes inside the Knob. The tiny Friction and Rubber Washers (61 and 62) go inside the Washer (63). They were not removed as that would require some poking and prodding that might damage them. I would only remove them if they were so worn as to prevent the Brake Knob from properly working.

When we took the Pinion Ball Bearing out we used a thin probe on the Ring. This is right where they go *sproing* off into the nether so get a thumb over it to keep it from getting lost:



A closer look at the pinon Ball Bearing, it can be oiled or packed with grease. This bearing has no effect on free spool and grease would offer more protection:



Abu Garcia had this to say about their HPCR (High Performance Corrosion Resistant) bearings: "These ball bearings are made from a German stainless steel that has got extremely good anti corrosion properties, in fact better than our competitionâ€™s. But it has also got other advantages. It can handle higher loads, higher RPMâ€™s, it has got better dry running behavior, and can also take more contamination without being damaged than regular stainless bearings".

This bearing is sealed from salt by the O Ring (arrow) which should not be removed unless required to avoid damage and a loss of sealing(56):



But if they user backs off the Brake all the way then on older models saltwater could get to the bearing. That's why I be sure to pack this bearing with grease and grease the threads for the Knob. This can be a common source of corrosion otherwise and should be a very frequent site of monitoring.

This is how I like the Bearing to look after service, nice and packed with grease. I prefer to find soggy grease if saltwater has gotten inside rather than corrosion:



With all of the Screws removed as well as the handle we can lift off the Gear Side Plate and take a look at it's back side. This is our access to the One Way Clutch for cleaning and lube. The OWC is a pressed in bearing that is considered part of the Side Plate. It could be pressed out as required with proper tools and Abu Garcia had this to say about it: " (the One Way Clutch)...is pressed in but it can be exchanged by our service center. We do not list it as a separate part because the risk that someone will damage the side plate is obvious. Our testing shows that a press fitted OWC keeps the gears aligned better than a loose fitted OWC".



We can certainly leave it in the side plate for routine service which would be flushing with Corrosion-X or other light oil. This generally will loosen any gummy residue. If push came to shove a degreasing with Simple Green or other plastic safe solvent would clean it nicely:



Ok, with the side plate off we get our first view of the guts of the reel:


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## CoralSeas (May 2, 2012)

What is worth noting (in the image above) is the massive relative size of the hardened brass Main Gear ("Duragear Brass"). This why the "low profile" geometry is so useful for us fisherman. It is more low profile and compact by pushing the Main Gear (44) forward. The gear can then be made much larger without growing the height of the reel as the spool remains only as big as is needed. The larger main gear equals more cranking power in a smaller package. Smaller reels can now crank in bigger fish .

The Pinion Assembly. A bit on the "dry" side, we will well grease it all:



The Drag Stack:



The drag material is Abu Garcia's "Carbon Matrix Drag" a proprietary drag material. Of note it was dry from the factory and they had this to say: " In our lab testing the drag performs perfect without grease. We do a long endurance test and we test the smoothness after it is completed. We have not seen any advantage with greased over dry drag washers. The drag washer are made from carbon fiber and are somewhat self lubricating. If someone would like to add grease to the washers we recommend Pennâ€™s reel grease or dura lube as we have noticed that some popular after market greases makes the drag velocity dependent. (The drag increases as the spool rotates faster)".

From a saltwater angler's perspective greased drags are nice for several reasons, one, "startup" force is reduced and the drag is less jerky when it perhaps has not been tested in a while by a big enough fish to pull line but, two, it prevents saltwater intrusion into the drag washers which leads to corrosion and an extremely sticky drag. The pro reel techs tell me that most physical damage they see on a reel is caused by a jerky drag (as it creates forces greater than the reel is engineered to handle) so by greasing it we are protecting it firstly and foremostly, with smooth performance a bonus.

And it just so happens I have some of Penn's Precision Reel Grease so we will protect it all with that. 



Both sides :



With the Main Gear removed:



Ratchet (42) and the famed Ambassadeur style dog Stopper (41) for back up anti-reverse:



A clear shot of the orientation of the Lift Curve (28), Clutch Plate (29) and the Kick Lever (25), Kick Lever Spring (26) and Clutch Spring (27). Removal is not shown but they were pulled out and their places in the Frame lightly greased:


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## CoralSeas (May 2, 2012)

A shot of the Pinion (33) and Yoke (31) in their proper orientation:



We want to get to the important Ball Bearing that supports the Main Gear Shaft (40) held in place by the Main Gear Shaft Plate (38) which is released by removing the Screws (39):



Leading us to a notorious "sump" for saltwater collection in any number of reels with similar design, the receptacle in the frame for the Main Shaft Bearing. This image is an "after" shot that shows a complete light greasing of the Frame:



The Bearing (37) popped out. This will get packed with grease with one of Alan Tani's bearing packers:







The Plate partly retains the Worm Shaft assembly seen at the tip of the probe:



With it out of the way we can remove the c-clip Retainer (17), Washer (16), Worm Shaft Pin Holder (15), Worm Shaft (10) with it's Bearings (13,14) plus the left side assembly of Washers (11,12) and Retainer (9). Once the Gear side is dis-assembled it slips out the Palm side:



There is no free lunch here ! The bearings and worm must be regularly oiled (not a grease fan for this part due to dirt collection). Some have stated they wish there were bushings instead of bearings here for a more maintenance free level wind mechanism but with an engaged worm when casting it must rotate very freely to prevent problems. And cast beautifully it does .


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## CoralSeas (May 2, 2012)

Ok, a few tips when getting it back together...I am a "dipper" of screws in marine grease when their ends can be exposed to Salt:



You do have to be careful when the screw receptacle ends in a "blind pocket" as you can damage your reel over-torquing a screw when there is too much grease present. In the Revo Toro NaCl the ends of the threaded slots for the screws open to the outside, if not greased they will corrode. Here we can see rather than the end of a screw the grease that is protecting it:



And we like to see some coming out around the head too. Remember, these are dissimilar metals in contact that want to corrode simply being near Ocean air.

During re-assembly we want to be sure to get a nice barrier of grease under the Star to protect the OWC:



And a light coat on hidden surfaces with screw holes in them. This is the frame right where the Spool interacts with the Pinion:



Articulating surfaces on the handle get Corrosion-X:



Ok, that is what I have for the moment .

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The Revo Toro NaCL HS shares many of the same features that it's brethren have yet importantly has a more corrosion resistant frame. This class of reel, really extra large and beefed up freshwater Bass reels, have become quite popular on both coasts and Abu Garcia has taken steps to make it a more complete saltwater reel than previous offerings with corrosion resistance and a power handle.

The tutorial I hope turns some guys onto this type of reel and helps others truly prep their own for the saltwater environment. All of the various tips covered can be applied to nearly any reel with one goal in mind: Helping your reel survive the salt and not let you down when you need it.

I think this style of reel is very exciting giving the guy who likes casting artificials more cranking power than comparable sized (11oz) spinning reels as well as far more castability than traditional conventional reels without a levelwind or casting brakes. Those last two features make casting braided lines easier than ever before with a conventional reel, pretty much relegating "professional overruns" to the rare occurrence for even an average caster.

With the growing popularity of braided lines and the "small reels, big fish" concept I think the large saltwater baitcast reels are here to stay. 

regards


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## cfulbright (Jun 24, 2009)

Thank you for putting this together! Im interested in this reel or the Lexa(at half the price) I think they have a major place in the jetty and offshore market.


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## CoralSeas (May 2, 2012)

cfulbright said:


> Thank you for putting this together! Im interested in this reel or the Lexa(at half the price) I think they have a major place in the jetty and offshore market.


I'm really excited about this reel type too. I like to fish both conventional and spinning and being able to switch up muscle groups fishing one or the other keeps me fishing hard longer.

I stumbled across this thread that had some good pros and cons on the Lexa vs the Revo. Seems they both have their fans:

http://muskie.outdoorsfirst.com/board/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=91929&start=1


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