Old style 114 h

[snowgoose200]

I have an external drag 114h. I am about to upgrade to carbon drag washers. My question is, should I put the drag washers in after assembly?

[RowdyW]

I would put them in before assembly because sometimes the eared washers are a tight fit through the side plate.      RUDY

[cbar45]

On conventional star drags, you may want to test-fit the new drag washers before assembly to verify that the first eared metal washer seats correctly in the main gear. Very rarely, you will find a gear in which the grooves for the eared washer end a bit too high, such that there is a gap between the first eared washer and the soft washer below it. One fix is to simply use thicker washers below the first eared washer to allow full contact of all drag surfaces when the star is cranked down.

On older 114H's, placing the slightly thicker keyed metal washer at the bottom of the stack usually gives enough height to allow the first eared washer to seat correctly. I prefer to install external 114-H drags before assembly, since adjustments are easier to make--especially if one of the eared washers gets hung up on the main gear. No need to worry about the stack falling out; it will be held together with your drag grease of choice..

Chad

[swill88]

nice tip Chad... thanks...

steve

[Maxed Out]

Very good point Chad.

I never put 2 and 2 together till now. It may have been that the slot for the ear didn't need to be all the way down because they were still using the thick asbestos washers at the time. Just a guess

[FatTuna]

I second what Rudy said. The eared washers can get caught. Sometimes I use a piece of tape to hold everything in place.