Drag slipping in cold weather

[sdlehr]

I finally got on the water today as I was eager to try my reels. It was a balmy 19 degrees at 7:00 am and I'm very happy to report that all the reels passed the test as not a single drag slipped!

Good for you for persevering and finding a solution that works! We all learned something at the same time. Happy endings are nice.

[lifeofRiley]

So just out of curiosity what did the drag washers become contaminated with?? I clean reels indoors so usually I can't use a strong solvent like break clean, do you think simple green would work?

[sdlehr]

So just out of curiosity what did the drag washers become contaminated with?? I clean reels indoors so usually I can't use a strong solvent like break clean, do you think simple green would work?

Whatever it was, it was soluble in an organic solvent (brake cleaner). I'm going to guess it was something from the old grease that degraded with time, but it's just a guess.

[aqua71]

The reels were only 1 year old and were never opened/serviced, so I don't think old grease was the culprit(?). When I opened them up I noticed the A/R bearings were over lubed, so perhaps that grease mitigated into the drag stack and contaminated it(?). FWIW I initially cleaned the drag stack with alcohol which didn't work, so obviously a stronger solvent was necessary as was suggested.

[sdlehr]

FWIW I initially cleaned the drag stack with alcohol which didn't work, so obviously a stronger solvent was necessary as was suggested.

Yeah, alcohols are pretty poor for dissolving grease and other non-polar stuff. I use naptha when I need a strong degreaser like this. Mineral spirits are too impure for this and will leave a film on the surface. I would also think that Sal's "Paslode" would work well for this application.