newell problems

[alantani]

To: Alan Tani <alantani@yahoo.com>
Sent: Friday, July 24, 2009 8:12:54 AM
Subject: Newell 332


Alan,

I picked up a new Newell R332-5 reel and replaced the bearings and the drag disks with ABEC bearings and carbontex drag washers from 'Smooth Drag'. I lubed the bearing and greased the drag washers with Cal's grease.

I measured the drag with the reel mounted onto my Seeker 270h-8 rod then measured the drag. I only got 10 lbs of drag with the star drag tightened as far as it would go. I thought these reels got about 15 lbs of drag. I measured the drag 3 more times with the same results. I took the reel apart and checked to make sure I put the drag washers back in the correct order. The reel didn't come with a schematic, so I used your Newell rebuild as a guide. I kept everything in order as I took it apart and put it back together. I wiped the excess grease off the drag washers when I installed them.

My reel came with 3 bellevue springs. How many bellevue's are there supposed to be? I only saw 2 in your rebuild. I found a partial schematic for the 300 series online at stripersonline.com.http://www.stripersonline.com/surftalk/showthread.php?t=569768

I only see 2 bellevue's, #3-142 & #3-144. #3-144 is on the drag stack under the drag spacer, #3-12. The other bellevue, #3-142, is on top of the drag star and under the handle washer, #3-16.

I see that there's a curved washer, #3-18, on top of the drag spacer. I can't figure out where the third bellevue goes.

I went fishing 2 days ago on the 'Gail Force' out of LAsportfishing in San Pedro. I hooked up a barracuda casting an iron with the Newell reel. The drag held pretty good, the drag slipped a little when the cuda tried to run and I started to reel him in. The fish weighed about 11 lbs. I  was using 40 lb Ande pink mono. I haven't checked the drag since the trip.



I hope you can help.

Thanks,  Mike

hi, mike.  there are couple of possibilities.  one is that you have spectra slipping on the spool.   the other is the spool slipping on the spool shaft.  the last is that the star is not properly traveling far enough to put enough pressure on the drag stack.  the problem is that newell has so many different configurations.  it simply drives me nuts!  one thing to try is to remove the bridge plate and main gear, assemble the entire drag stack without the side plate to get in the way, and turn down the star to see how far it travels.  you should be able to turn the star down far enough that you can't turn the main gear by hand.  otherwise, i really need to take a look at this one myself.  alan