Depends on the age and quality of the reels, but i have a couple of old abu reels that i have done this to, and it adds a few more years to there life for sure. take the screws out and remove the bar with the level wind and pawl inside. and a hack saw or grinder did the job for me so you can have access to the spool with your thumb, but you can get inside and pull them out properly. level winds are just another point of contact for line to get cut up or caught in older reels.

 yea i got a really bad abu one and i think i rushed into buying one and thats why i didnt get what i need it plus will most likley never use on a boat so i may as well

thanks

A few people have removed the line guide, or the whole spindle, but some reels are harder to lay the line on manually after you do it (and some arent too bad). Nearly all level wind reels have a top bar, which isnt as nice for manually level winding IMO, but you should be able to make your own judgments on your specific reel.

Other option is to sell it and get a non-levelwind reel ;) If theres no top bar, less to get caught while casting too.

Can get a kit for it from abu, John clark off here did it to his

abu garcia hs 7000ic3 He got his parts from blake dog tackle uk, To remove his l/wind  and make his stronger

 thanks sherbs ile look into it but ive just taken the level wind off snd put it all back together but it now has a problem that when i flick the lever switch over to free spool the drag is still holding on and i cant cast so does anyone know what i need to do to fix that?

cheers