Newell Drag Washer Replacement question. (grease or no grease)

Started by Thefishhandler, May 28, 2018, 11:19:20 PM

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Thefishhandler

I currently have about a dozen Newell 631-3 reels that i have in rotation for heavy duty bottom fishing here in Florida. We use heavy braid (130lb) at an almost locked setting. Basically I want just a small of line to come off when a grouper pulls really hard. So with that, should i still be greasing the smooth drag washers in the reels? Would't that cause me to not be able to get as much drag out of the reel?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Swami805

First Welcome! I have a whole new level of respect for a 631 newell seeing what you're doing with them. I have one I use with 60lb mono but don't use it much. Not sure about grease on smooth drags. Bryan Young (ultimate upgrades) on here sells a custom carbon fiber drag kit for that reel, you might want to try those, a big step up in performance from smooth drags and those should be greased. Someone will be along to answer about grease in smoothies.
Just curious, how much 130lb does that reel hold? I have a giant spool of JB hollow 130, might need to step my game up.
Do what you can with that you have where you are

Reel 224

I would say as lightly grease the washers and take some turns on the loaded spool in a light drag adjustment to break the drag in. Ware Gloves!

Joe
"I don't know the key to success,but the key to failure is trying to please everyone."

SoCalAngler

Quote from: Thefishhandler on May 28, 2018, 11:19:20 PM
I currently have about a dozen Newell 631-3 reels that i have in rotation for heavy duty bottom fishing here in Florida. We use heavy braid (130lb) at an almost locked setting. Basically I want just a small of line to come off when a grouper pulls really hard. So with that, should i still be greasing the smooth drag washers in the reels? Would't that cause me to not be able to get as much drag out of the reel?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Adding Cal's drag grease should not affect the max drag on any reel, what it does do is smooth out the startup when the line is pulled off the reel under drag. With higher drag settings a smoother transition from no line coming off under drag to line being pulled off the spool is a good thing, so I'd grease them.

Edit: I'm sure Dawn will respond in a day or two but if you want more drag for your reels Bryan Young on this website makes a 7 plus 1 drag upgrade kit for the 600 line of Newells and Dawn may carry them. I did not check her website. If she does not maybe Bryan has some in stock.

Here is a link to his kit.
http://alantani.com/index.php?topic=9284.0

Thefishhandler

Thanks for all the info everyone!! I had been doing a mod like what you were saying cramming an extra washer in and compressing it with a weight to get it in the reel. But that leaves it so there really isn't too LOOSE of a drag on it.

It holds about 375 of Jerry Brown 130hollow. I am splicing that to 125 Triplefish pink, and it is a B!@#$h to get out of the bottom. But by far the 3:1 Ratio is the answer for cranking on big gags and amberjack.

I will say this reel in that capacity isn't for everyone. I know its limits and i use it very carefully. I wouldn't recommend it for fast running fish. This is a brute force/tug of war situation.

For those of you with an instagram, my name on there is thefishhandler and you can see some of the fish I am catching on these reels. I am not really sure how to post pics here.

Anyways thanks for the input, I anxiously await Dawns opinion.

MarkT

If you're using the old smoothie washers I wouldn't grease them as they're not really porous, they're like a gasket material. I would grease carbon fiber washers.
When I was your age Pluto was a planet!

Tiddlerbasher

If they are carbon fibre drag washers grease them - Cals or a teflon based marine grease. I've never used 'Smoothies' so I can't comment.

SoCalAngler

Quote from: Thefishhandler on May 30, 2018, 03:38:03 AM
Thanks for all the info everyone!! I had been doing a mod like what you were saying cramming an extra washer in and compressing it with a weight to get it in the reel. But that leaves it so there really isn't too LOOSE of a drag on it.

It holds about 375 of Jerry Brown 130hollow. I am splicing that to 125 Triplefish pink, and it is a B!@#$h to get out of the bottom. But by far the 3:1 Ratio is the answer for cranking on big gags and amberjack.

I will say this reel in that capacity isn't for everyone. I know its limits and i use it very carefully. I wouldn't recommend it for fast running fish. This is a brute force/tug of war situation.

For those of you with an instagram, my name on there is thefishhandler and you can see some of the fish I am catching on these reels. I am not really sure how to post pics here.

Anyways thanks for the input, I anxiously await Dawns opinion.

I'm sure Bryan's mod is a bit more than just cramming in another drag washer. I have not seen his kits but I'm sure he uses either thinner carbon washers, thinner metals, or both to make the drag stack the same or very close in height to the stock washers.

I never thought about using Smoothies and the others are right never grease those but I would never use Smoothies anyway.

Fishy247

Quote
I'm sure Bryan's mod is a bit more than just cramming in another drag washer. I have not seen his kits but I'm sure he uses either thinner carbon washers, thinner metals, or both to make the drag stack the same or very close in height to the stock washers.

Bryan's kits are super thin on both the CF washers and the metal washers, allowing for more to be stacked. There really isn't much to compress as far as the CF washers go, so the ramp-up to max drag is pretty fast. I'd say that for bottom fishing in the gulf, these would be pretty awesome.

QuoteI never thought about using Smoothies and the others are right never grease those but I would never use Smoothies anyway.

Back in the day(late '80's), those Smoothies were the best around for a smooth running drag. One drawback to them is that they are porous and will absorb any grease, oil, or water that came into contact with them, making for a sticky, jerky drag. So if they are the same kind as those, you definitely don't want to grease or oil them if you want to be able to pull any line off.

-Mike

Newell Nut

Use Cal's drag grease on the smooth drags in 631. I use mine to crush big AJs here in Daytona. The drag gets smoother and stays strong. The grease stops any stickiness when washers want to stick together.

Dwight

handi2

I still see smoothies every now and then. I use to put them in my old Penn 704's and 706's using light line for King Mackerel. This is before Cal's grease and Carbontex.

I still have some somewhere.

Keith
OCD Reel Service & Repair
Gulf Breeze, FL