Islander MR3 Maintenance & Wear

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I recently bought a used MR3...the guy said it was a spare reel that got little use, and the outside cosmetic condition was very, very good with only a few tiny nicks. I'm sure that I'll contribute many more nicks in my ownership.

Anyway, I bought a maintenance kit (oil & grease) and thought I'd take a peek inside before going fishing. I was pretty surprised to see the inside was covered in grease and gunk. Not sure if this is normal or ???
IMG_5833.jpg

Also, the teeth on the outside of the cork disc are quite worn where the pawls ride over the tooth, and the pawls themselves are worn too. I'm converting the reel to left-hand retrieve so the pawls will be flipped to the other edge, but the cork disk teeth will still be contacting in the same spot.
IMG_5862.jpg IMG_5864.jpg IMG_5865.jpg IMG_5867.jpg
IMG_5859.jpg
So, is this normal wear? Is this severe wear? Does this cork look still usable, or should I be buying a new cork disc?

Also, one of the springs for the pawls was broken, but it seems like for each pawl only one spring is necessary as long as it's fitted on the correct side for the retrieval direction.
 
That is more than light wear. The cork is still fine, just clean it with break cleaner and a cloth and maybe rough it up a little with a metal brush (gun cleaning) and then oil it. I would replace the two pawls as they are worn and replace the broken spring. You will still get lots of use from the drag disk teeth.You can get the parts from islander. Were the bearings all nice and smooth ?? Pop the covers off of the bearings with a hook point or fine knife, fill with marine grease and push the cover back on and you will get good bearing life. Clean the back of the spool with cloth and break clean. Put a light coat of marine grease on the pawls/ springs and th eclick/ spring on the back of the spool also
 
A lot of the black gunk looks like from the graphite which is used on the cork after a light oiling. The longer you own them you will find the sweet spot and smoothest drag. It will also stop any minor creep that lots of people like to bring up...lol. I haven’t had any issues with 4 reels over the last 10 years. Definitely not a spare reel though....imo
 
looks pretty standard for wear.

a new set of pawl assemblies are cheap from islander or Pacific net and twine comes with the screw, springs and pawl. (think I paid more for shipping than the cost of the parts). my cork drag assembly looked very similar to that and still did the job, but I opted to replace with a new one from pacific net think it was in the 50-60 dollar range. ( basically if you don't have drag issues or your reel does not Click on the spool out than your drag cork is probably ok in my opinion)

a bit of powder graphite and oil on the cork seems to be the trick. New islanders come with a maintenance guide that tells you what to grease and oil.

Looks like the previous owner went wild with the grease an oil...probably why it looks so black and gunky.
 
If you’re anywhere near Victoria, take it to Islander. They will do a full service at a reasonable price.
 
Thanks for the replies guys.

What's the story about graphite on the cork? I've read several threads about Islanders creeping but I haven't read about the graphite before.
 
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