Went fishing this past weekend with my mid 80's Ryobi SX5 spinning reel. I noticed there is a bit of wobble in the crank. I had a minute today to pull it apart - the crank is supported by 2 solid bushings - not sure of the material, but non-metallic plastic or nylon I suspect.
I didn't look at long enough to decide if it was the bearing wearing on the crank - or if the bearings are just not fit tight to the housing.
This isn't a reel I use often, but I was thinking about working on the bearings in preparation for it's next outing. I could make or perhaps buy a bronze bushing, or I could possibly find a sealed ball bearing bushing (I'd have to take some measurements to see If I could find something close enough). The reel is old enough there is likely no parts source for original parts (that either wore out too soon or weren't properly fit to start with)
It's not a valuable reel, probably a lot less hassle to go buy a new reel, but if a bit of work on the bearings makes a good solid reel it's maybe worth a bit of tinkering to fix it up.
The question is are sealed ball bearings worth trying to find? or, stick with a bronze bushing? I don't know what the better reels use these days.
It held up for two paddlefish this weekend and did fine. It'll probably not be used again until next season. I saw many cheap rods and reels fail this past weekend.
ETA: Looks to be a standard 9 x 17 x 4 mm bearing. Google searched that size for radial ball bearings and it comes up as the bearing used in the Daiwa 4000 series reels.