Malaysian made TLD25 spool shafts reduce drag pressure

[Goddy]

I have two Malaysian TLD25s and one made in Japan that have not been used much. I could only get about 8lb of drag at strike out of the Malaysian units, so there was little point using them. The circa 1993 Japan made one was fine.

I took the two Malaysian built TLDs to two Shimano shops without achieving any drag improvement.

Someone told me the spool shafts were not machine properly on the TLD25 from Malaysia when Shimano switched their manufacturing there. They were right. I ordered two new shafts from Shimano and was really surprised at the difference.

The two shafts are the same overall length but the  thread and square section lengths on the Malaysian made shaft stops the pre-program dial screwing down towards the drag a lot earlier than a new shaft. The thread of the faulty shaft goes only about half way into the pre-program dial.

I'd say if you can't count 7-8 threads on your TLD25 spool shaft you probably need to invest in a new one. From the threaded end of the shaft to the start of the circular section after the square section should be about 11mm.

See attached photos on 2mm grid paper. The new shaft is on the top, the removed one from the Malaysian reel is on the bottom. Big difference, the   old shaft only goes about 1/2 way into the pre-program dial.

[redsetta]

Welcome aboard Goddy.
Great post - thanks for sharing that info.
Cheers, Justin

[Irish Jigger]

Welcome to the Forum Goddy.
Very interesting information you gleaned there. Little wonder the perfectionists  prefer their Shimano's and Daiwa's to be made in Japan.

[Bryan Young]

Goddy,

Welcome and thank you for sharing this very interesting find.  Will keep an eye out on the reels we service for this.

Bryan

[alantani]

thank you for posting this, and welcome!!!!!!

[Goddy]

This was a pretty frustrating exercise. If you look at the photos of the brand new shaft from Shimano Australia on the top  it shows scoring on the shaft which isn't there on the second hand shaft I removed at the bottom.

In the close up of the thread you can see the shaft has been dropped and the first thread pitch is pinched together. I couldn't even get the pre-program dial to start on the new shaft until I filed the damaged thread open.

The new shaft looks suspiciously second hand.

I was buying the new shafts to fix a Shimano quality issue and the first new one I received had yet another albeit different quality issue

[Nessie Hunter]

 

[Mel B]

thanks for the info and welcome. guess you can blame the quality control dept....