Makaira bearings

[drewsung]

I have 3 Makaira SEa reels and really like them.  Grease in the right places, thrust bearing, great drag, and open spool bearings lubed with tsi 301 (among other things).

I have been using tsi 301 for about 3 years and do the usual bearing treatment (remove shields, clean out bearings with carb cleaner, compressed air and tsi lube).  For whatever reason, I can't get free spool like my makaira's and was wondering if I was doing something different than okuma.  Most of the reels I work on are star drag reels (Trinidad/torium) so I know I am up against a few different factors (pinion gear etc.) 

I am able to get around 45 seconds of free spool and have noticed that the free spool 'fades' rather quickly.  Some other observations: frame / spool clearance area does not have any grease, spool tension knob is on the loose side to prevent additional resistance, I have tried 'soaking' cleaned bearings in tsi 301 with no improvement in free spool, I am using standard abec 5 bearings from smooth drag or alan (no ceramic bearings). 

You may ask why I need more than 45 seconds of free spool.  I mostly want as much free spool as possible for my jig reels but I mostly just want to understand why I am not able to replicate Okuma's performance.  The free spool is insane and I see almost no fading.

Bottom line:  can I do anything else to improve free spool? And is okuma doing something secret to their bearings that I don't know about?

[Bryan Young]

There are a lot of friction points on a trinidad/torium that contribute to the spool slowing down.  First ate at the ends of the spool. They may ride in spool bearings but come in contact with brass plates to help keep side play of the spool at a minimum.  Then there is the friction between the spool shaft and pinion gear.  Lever drag reels have a free floating spool and do not have any of these friction points and therefore spin free If you want a reel that has this type of free spool from a star drag reel, I would recommend Penn's 113HN baja special , their new squalls, fathom and torque reels.

[Dr. Jekyll - AKA MeL B]

generally LD reels will spin longer in comparison with SD reels. the 2 main reasons are spool weight(inertia) and it(spool) rides on 2 bearings. the reels, that i have, that can probably equal or out spin the LD's are my abu rounds and penn fathom 12. also the torque SD line of reels have penn's live spindle design. hope this helps...