Daiwa Saltiga 50 Help

[xaf]

The last two times when I have caught fish on my Saltiga 50 Star Drag while in free spool there has been a grinding noise and it has taken an extra beat or two to go into gear when I flipped the clutch lever to put the reel in gear.  The reel is several years old and I fish it quite often. I'm guessing that it has something to do with the pinion gear not engaging properly but I'm not certain.  I did a quick search but couldn't fine anything addressing the issue.  Does anyone have an idea what the problem could be? If I need to get parts I would like to get them on order so I can use the reel on an upcoming fishing trip.

Thanks in advance for any info on this problem.

[exp2000]

Please refer to the schematics. The clutch on these reels is a very simple mechanism.

You really need to lift the sidecover and investigate first hand what is going wrong.

Much better than guessing the situation and doing a blind parts order only to get it wrong.
~

[xaf]

I have already taken the side cover off and looked at the clutch mechanism but can't find anything obliviously wrong.  That's one of the main reasons for my question.