Low Drag - International 50

[Norcal Pescador]

I'm rebuilding an International 50 and it has the original asbestos drag washer. Should I go with the 117DN-50 Dura Drag or the 6/1-50 HT-100? I'm not expecting to use the reel more than about 6 days a year for tuna, etc. The reel looks great inside with no evidence of salt water intrusion and the drag plates are fine.
Also the spool bearings are good; pulled the seals, cleaned, lubed with reelx and made a sleeve. Will probably get new main bearings.

Okay, I rebuilt the reel using the 117DN-50 Dura Drag, Cal's drag grease wiping off the excess and adding a bearing sleeve. I didn't get much drag without losing freespool. I took out the bearing sleeve [everything worked better] and got 11# drag with the stock belleville configuration ()(). When I changed the bellevilles to ((() it raised the drag to 15# at strike with an okay freespool. I'm measuring 20# at full drag and I'm using 60# mono.

How much more drag could I expect if I added another belleville ((()) as kamu did in his tutorial? I'd like to get a few more pounds at strike so I can back off the preset and get good freespool.

Thanks all!
Rob

[alantani]

it's gonna be more but i could not tell you how much.  honestly, you've got to just switch them out and check.  guessing maybe 30 pounds? 

[Dominick]

Rob:  With 60lb mono, 20lbs of drag is the magic 1/3 of the line capacity.  But, I am assuming when you say you are at full drag you mean drag at strike.  If you really mean the lever way up in the full position, then I think you should get more than 20lbs of drag.  I was able to get 27lbs at strike with my old 50 loaded with 80lb mono.  I would not mess with it, unless or until you put heavier line on it.  But like Alan said, if you want more, switch the bellvilles around and test it.  Dominick

[Norcal Pescador]

Hi Dominick -
The 20# was at full and the 15# at strike. I hate tearing into it over and over to try different arrangements on the bellevilles. I'm going to order a couple more bellevilles and try kamu's arrangement ((()). Thanks for the tips.
Rob

[kamuwela]

if that dont work you can always mic out original configuration, then go full one way ((((( as long as the stack is close to original measurments you should be fine. the belleville's are spring washers they can always go bad and get weak. good luck

[Norcal Pescador]

I'm rebuilding an International 50 and it has the original asbestos drag washer. Should I go with the 117DN-50 Dura Drag or the 6/1-50 HT-100? I'm not expecting to use the reel more than about 6 days a year for tuna, etc. The reel looks great inside with no evidence of salt water intrusion and the drag plates are fine.
Also the spool bearings are good; pulled the seals, cleaned, lubed with reelx and made a sleeve. Will probably get new main bearings.

Okay, I rebuilt the reel using the 117DN-50 Dura Drag, Cal's drag grease wiping off the excess and adding a bearing sleeve. I didn't get much drag without losing freespool. I took out the bearing sleeve [everything worked better] and got 11# drag with the stock belleville configuration ()(). When I changed the bellevilles to ((() it raised the drag to 15# at strike with an okay freespool. I'm measuring 20# at full drag and I'm using 60# mono.

How much more drag could I expect if I added another belleville ((()) as kamu did in his tutorial? I'd like to get a few more pounds at strike so I can back off the preset and get good freespool.

Thanks all!
Rob

  Well, I ordered 5 new bellevilles and went to work on the reel again.  After much trial and error including new, old, new and old bellevilles in many different configurations, I finally got it where I want it. The new bellevilles from PennParts are made of thicker stock [listed as 18-50W] than the originals. The new bellevilles in the stock configuration ()() are perfect!
  At fair freespool I measured 21# of drag at Strike and 34# at Full.  So I backed it off and having it set at 16# at Strike gives me 28# at Full and good freespool.  
Thanks guys for helping me troubleshoot.
Rob