# Help. Shimano Sonora reel - Bail not working properly



## Scott K

I have a Shimano Sonora reel. The bail doesn't always flip back over after I cast. It will sometimes work ok for a while and sometimes it will happen every time.

I had it apart and put some reel oil on it but that did nothing. The springs all seemed to be good.

I'm assuming sending it in for repair wouldn't be worth. Plus, I'd be afraid that it would work ok while it was in the shop and nothing would get fixed.

Does anyone have suggestions on how to fix it?


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## HemlockNailer

Your bail got bent. Light pressure on it should fix it, try it right or left see if it gets better. Just have to play with it till it snaps back like before. You can buy a new reel for what they charge to recondition.


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## MickL

How do you attempt to close ('flip back') the bail.... with your hand or by turning the handle? When I was first learning to use a spinning reel (a Shimano) I closed the bail by turning the handle. After doing this for a few months the bail would sometimes not close. The problem was that the lobe on the reel body had worn down. Now I always close bails with my hand.


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## raisinrat

Scott K said:


> I have a Shimano Sonora reel. The bail doesn't always flip back over after I cast. It will sometimes work ok for a while and sometimes it will happen every time.
> 
> I had it apart and put some reel oil on it but that did nothing. The springs all seemed to be good.
> 
> I'm assuming sending it in for repair wouldn't be worth. Plus, I'd be afraid that it would work ok while it was in the shop and nothing would get fixed.
> 
> Does anyone have suggestions on how to fix it?


Scott did you clean out where the bail spring is at on the real? You can find it on the rotor just under the line roller.









A bent bail wire would not cause this problem. It is either a bad spring or the trip has worn out inside the reel that trips the bail back over. A really good cleaning in the area that I highlighted in the pic may fix it. If it doesn't depending on what is worn out you can have shimano send you the part to replace what is worn out.


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## raisinrat

Here is some Maintenance tips from Shimano
Maintenance tips
​Reel Schematics for the newer reel (orange) if it isn't this one you can go to their site and get the right one for your reel.

Reel Schematics​


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## Scott K

MickL said:


> How do you attempt to close ('flip back') the bail.... with your hand or by turning the handle? When I was first learning to use a spinning reel (a Shimano) I closed the bail by turning the handle. After doing this for a few months the bail would sometimes not close. The problem was that the lobe on the reel body had worn down. Now I always close bails with my hand.


I close it by turning the handle about 95% of the time. It sounds like it would be a pain in the neck to manually close it each time.



HemlockNailer said:


> Your bail got bent. Light pressure on it should fix it, try it right or left see if it gets better. Just have to play with it till it snaps back like before. You can buy a new reel for what they charge to recondition.


This worked for me.



raisinrat said:


> Scott did you clean out where the bail spring is at on the real? You can find it on the rotor just under the line roller.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> A bent bail wire would not cause this problem. It is either a bad spring or the trip has worn out inside the reel that trips the bail back over. A really good cleaning in the area that I highlighted in the pic may fix it. If it doesn't depending on what is worn out you can have shimano send you the part to replace what is worn out.


Hemlock's advice seemed to work for me. Maybe it wasn't a permanent fix?

And yes, I did clean where you indicated along with everything else I could get to. It was pretty clean before I started though and it made no difference in how the reel worked. None of the parts are worn out as far as I can tell but I'm certainly not an expert and I don't exactly know what I am looking for.



raisinrat said:


> Here is some Maintenance tips from ShimanoMaintenance tips
> ​Reel Schematics for the newer reel (orange) if it isn't this one you can go to their site and get the right one for your reel.Reel Schematics​


I think I did the cleaning pretty close to how the link shows, but I am going to go back and oil a couple of the recommended areas that I didn't know needed it.



Thanks for the advice guys.


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## ToddS

You should ALL WAYS close your reel by hand. That will stop little twists/ loops in your line.

ToddS


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## Scott K

ToddS said:


> You should ALL WAYS close your reel by hand. That will stop little twists/ loops in your line.
> 
> ToddS


I've never heard of anyone doing this before but you guys have me wondering now. And since I'm bored I'm going to make a new thread about this.


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## FishKilla419

If you do alot of fishing. I would defenitely close bail by hand. Return springs wear out in no time if you put serious time on the reel.. And that other part that is in that mechanism(mentioned before).


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## mcfish

After you start closing the bail by hand every time, it will become second nature.


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## diztortion

I almost bought a Sonora last week.


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## DE82

FishKilla419 said:


> If you do alot of fishing. I would defenitely close bail by hand. Return springs wear out in no time if you put serious time on the reel.. And that other part that is in that mechanism(mentioned before).


Yeah never do it the hard way, go with your hand closing it. You won't be sorry. Haven't had the problem your talking about in years. Have many Shimano's


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## Scott K

I'm going to try closing it by hand from now on, but a 40 year habit is going to be hard to break.


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## FishKilla419

Scott K said:


> I'm going to try closing it by hand from now on, but a 40 year habit is going to be hard to break.


As soon as I make a cast, my left hand goes right to the spool. I normally stop my line as soon as the rig is entering the water closing the bail as soon as I have the line stopped. No reason to reel in all the slack,the wind is going to pull off the spool(especially with super lines).


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## sfw1960

Scott K said:


> I'm going to try closing it by hand from now on, but a 40 year habit is going to be hard to break.


Not at all....
I used to trout fish a TON when I was a younger man - I would use my hand to half-flip the bail open and close it when the bait was approaching the meltdown zone.
:evilsmile
I also use a trigger on some of my reels, my Wife likes'M and I can go either way... wait - that didn't sound right...
I'm a lesbocaughtinamansbody....LOL :lol:

It's a great way to cut on line twist, even though I use almost all braid now a days.
:fish2:


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