Any serviced Okuma Cavalla?

[boghy]

I would like to know if anyone here serviced any used Okuma Cavalla and noticed problems with the key #611-1 (Drag Washer) as far as retaining saltwater?
Based on schematics for Okuma Cavalla the "Drag Washer" is called "Eared Washer" which is the carbon drag washer and has the key #611 - that one i greased with Cal's grease on my 50w, but not #611-1 (Drag Washer) - should i be worried?
Is there anything else that i should be worried about?

[reelman-nz]

hi i think it does pay to grease 611-1 as from what i see saltwater does tend to build and crystallizes causing the drag to be uneven and also causes it to have no freesplool because it lifts up the washer .where as all the ones that have had both washers greased seem to do ok.i have not serviced a cavalla but the drag washers are no different than the titus tg50.

[boghy]

hi i think it does pay to grease 611-1 as from what i see saltwater does tend to build and crystallizes causing the drag to be uneven and also causes it to have no freesplool because it lifts up the washer .where as all the ones that have had both washers greased seem to do ok.i have not serviced a cavalla but the drag washers are no different than the titus tg50.

What if i remove 611-1, add two bellevilles totaling 4 like this (()) from () and attach 611 directly on the spool - would that increase the drag pressure or by doing that those big 4 holes, located on the side of the spool, will actually mess up 611?
This is very new to me as well, so i try to find a better way of doing this - i personally don't like 611-1 there.
To better understand this conversation here is a portion of Okuma Cavalla 50w-II schematics:


and here is how this looks like in reality:



The piece on top is 611-1 and the one on the bottom 611 which is also the carbon drag.
Notice the big 4 holes on the site on the spool? Yes - that's another concern that i have if put directly the carbon drag 611.

[JGB]

I've worked on Cavalla 15 and 20  with no sign of water intrusion on the drags.
The 611 is the Cabontex drag disk and the 611-1 is a canvas pad. the 2 work together to smooth out the drag. The pad cushions the drag as it is rather hard and does not compress very much. why would they do this? Well Okuma uses this set up to produce a drag that will let up a little on long hard pulls that take a lot of line. This makes the reel more forgiving VS the softer drags that will continue to apply drag allowing the effective drag to increase to 2x or more as your spool empties.

This pad is rather flimsy and frays easily. Give it your best to grease and apply grease to the spool and the back of the drag 611. this will keep the possibility of water soaking into the pad at a minimum. The drag side should be wiped  of excess grease so you can keep good free spool performance. As an option you can delete the pad with no other changes. You may get a little variation at low drag settings while the higher drag settings will be normal.

FYI It is very easy to over tighten the drag while seeing how much drag you can get and still have free spool. The large free detent allows you to set for more than the rated drag. If you do and you push it up to full you run the likely chance of damaging the left spool bearing. I've had to replace several of my bearings doing this while bench testing to see what the reel would do.

Jim N.

[wallacewt]

hi jim,this raises another ? whats the effect of a carbonex or ht-100 on top of one another to take up space in your drag.cheers

[JGB]

Stacking carbon fiber disks does not create any problems other than cost. We routinely do this when adjusting stack height on a drag conversion (we will usually use a thicker drag plate in a drag stack to keep cost down). Be sure to grease all sides of each carbon disk.

Jim N.