International 50TW - Too much drag and quick ramp up

[Jason Groombridge]

G'day All,

I would appreciate it you could give me a hand with what I perceive as a problem, but may not be.

I just finished servicing a 50TW. No particular issues. The reel was in pretty good shape. A couple of bearings were a bit rough, the ratchet plate had been installed upside down, but other than that all good. CF drag plate and stainless drag plate looked almost brand new, as did the outside of the reel.

Anyway, after it was all finished and put back together I tested the drag. I wound the preset up half or 3/4 of a turn, threw the lever forward to strike, held the spool with my hand and tried to turn the handle. Wow, lots of drag. I backed the preset right off and tried again, still lots of drag. I thought this was strange because pretty much every Inter I have serviced before has needed some action on the preset to get to the correct drag. I tested the drag with some scales and with the preset backed right off, I'm getting just over 8kg of drag at strike. My scales don't go past 11kg so I didn't even try and test drag at sunset. The drag also seems to be ramping up very quickly. I'm going from freespool to substantial drag in about 1/2" of lever travel. The reel is achieving freespool when the lever is pulled right back. Belevilles are in the ()() configuration.

Is this normal and OK? Or not? I'm wondering if someone has done something to the reel to be able to fish it at 37kg. I don't know the history of the reel to know if this is the case or not and internally it looks bog standard to me.

Any advice you could offer would be appreciated.

Cheers

Jason

[alantani]

that's funny!  i usually TRY to get that level of performance in a reel!  the hard part here is that it's a single speed reel and you're going to have a hard time turning the crank at that drag setting, but many sharkers here are looking for these higher drag settings.  for long range fishing here, targeting tuna in a 50-150kg class, guys would want 20kg of drag at strike and possibly 25-30kg of drag at full, with good freespool.  being a single speed reel, though, no one would want to fish with it, except for maybe the shark guys on the board!

[handi2]

Out of the last 20 I just serviced 6 of them had a softer setting on the bellvilles like this ()((. He likes them this way fishing 50lb mono on a 50TW reel. It took 1 1/2 full turns on the preset dial to get the 17lbs of drag he requested.

The others were in stock configuration and only took one turn (full turn).

I have found just after assembly to turn the preset dial in a few turns first them back down all the way. Then start the settings.

K

[josa1]

I think the wafer washer stack is the driving factor.  I don't particularly like a fast ramp up of drag as I feel it gives me fewer choices on how I want to set it.  Not much effort to turn the preset knob.

I've had to school myself to check the drag BEFORE I take the reel apart and also check the ease with which the handle turns in both low and high speed selections.  I can then see if there's any difference after I service it.

josa1

[handi2]

I think the wafer washer stack is the driving factor.  I don't particularly like a fast ramp up of drag as I feel it gives me fewer choices on how I want to set it.  Not much effort to turn the preset knob.

I've had to school myself to check the drag BEFORE I take the reel apart and also check the ease with which the handle turns in both low and high speed selections.  I can then see if there's any difference after I service it.

josa1

I have done the same thing. Not checking a reel before proceeding. Its not hard to forget when your going from one reel to the next in a line of reels.

[Jason Groombridge]

Thanks for your responses.

Unfortunately this was a rush job (the tackle store wanted the reels back overnight) so I haven't gotten to the bottom of it. When I returned the reel I also found out that the owner was fishing it as a 15kg reel. So his only option at the moment is to run the lever behind the strike position to get 5kg of drag. Not ideal, but with the time I had it was not possible to pull the reel apart again.

I suspect this reel may find it's way back to my bench again.

Cheers

Jason