Penn 114H Drag Upgrades result in very touchy drag adjustment

[roysbb]

 I just rebuilt a "near mint 114H with Tiburon Frame"  that I bought on ebay.

Nowhere in the ad did it say "Narrow" but I was pretty sure it was, and sure enough it was - SCORE!

To this brand new reel I added a drag insert and a stainless offset handle from Motive Fab, and a few
stainless goodies from Pro Challenger.

As delivered the drag max'd out at 14 lbs  (it had a new HT100 setup installed dry), but went up to 38 lbs with
the drag insert installed.

Freespool is excellent, and the drag comes on smooth from 2 to about 12 lbs, but

going from 12 to 38 lbs takes just 1/2 turn of the star,

going from 20 to 38 lbs of drag takes just 1/4 turn of the star !


I have tried a couple different belville washer setups and it did increase the max drag, but it still came in too
quickly in the higher drag ranges.   

Is there an easy solution ?  What should I try?   A different or spring-ier washer perhaps?

Thanks, Roy


I can't believe my good fortune on this purchase, this reel was about as MINT as possible.  Never wet. 

Whoever put the frame on was a Pro, not a single screw head showed any sign of having been apart.
The grease was in all the right places (except the ends of the spool and the drag washers), but had thickened up
from sitting for years.  Free spool went from 12  to over 30 seconds with just a cleaning and a few drops of oil!

Loving my new reel !  It is even Hot Rod Red.

[Swami805]

Sounds like a good score! You know how everyone loves pictures??.  A fine thread gear sleeve would help if you don't have one in it already. It tales more turns to apply pressure than than coarse ones so you'd have finer adjustment

[Tiddlerbasher]

What is your belleville set-up? Have you tried ()()?

[RowdyW]

All threads on 114h gear sleeves are the same. There is no different thread pitch on any of them, brass or ss. The 114h doesn't have multible bellville washers like a lever drag reel. You might want to try one or multible thinner wavy washers in place of that thick wavy washer. After a little use it might need a little breaking in and then you might be able to go back to the thicker wavy washer.       Rudy

[scrinch]

It seems to me that the problem is that the belville washer is flattening out too soon so that the final half of your drag range is only adjusted by star travel rather than by compressing the belville. Compressing the belville allows for more star travel for a given amount of drag compression, which gives you a finer adjustment range. I'd try either a stiffer belville or doubling up your existing belville.

[Donnyboat]

I would suggest, plenty of cal`s grease between each washer,and further up, if your using the thin wavey washers, place cal`s on them as well, they tend to rust easy, Alan does not use them @ all, a delrin washer under the star, may help to turn the star, as long as your aware of what your star is doing for your reel you should be fine, I dont have much time to fiddle with the star once you get a large fish on anyway, cheers Don.