Side to Side play in Drive after Drag Upgrade

[r_shackleford]

I recently picked up a 9/0 115L for some land based sharking. During the rebuild and drag replacement, I encountered a few minor issues. The previous owner had 7 drag washers (HT100?) installed, including a delrin under the main gear, with only 5 stainless washers in the stack. The stack is also missing one of the tension springs, which I believe the previous owner removed to account for the additional drag washer. I opted to replace the drag with the standard Carbontex 6 washer setup so I  will need to replace the one missing tension spring. As of now, the reel is assembled with the tension spring missing between the handle and star drag, but is still fully operational (see attached photo below)

Now for the two questions I have for the Group:

1. The top hat on the drag stack seems to be recessed in the body quite a bit. Is this standard?
2. There is a small amount of side to side play in the entire drive- maybe 1mm max. Is this a cause for concern and should it be shimmed, or is it within spec?

Thanks in advance to everyone for your help.

 

[thorhammer]

I think the top hat is too low- perhaps a greased felt washer as an oil seal will raise it. That's an older gen reel obviously, so it's possible you will have to play around with the stack to get where you want to be. The new carbontex and metals can be thinner than old brass and leather/asbestos or whatever stacks. Were it mine, spec or no, I might add a shim under the sleeve to tighten it up given your intended purpose is to winch a several hundred lb fish from the dirt, add a carbontex back in with felt seal, and wavy washer outboard of star.


John

[r_shackleford]

I think the top hat is too low- perhaps a greased felt washer as an oil seal will raise it. That's an older gen reel obviously, so it's possible you will have to play around with the stack to get where you want to be. The new carbontex and metals can be thinner than old brass and leather/asbestos or whatever stacks. Were it mine, spec or no, I might add a shim under the sleeve to tighten it up given your intended purpose is to winch a several hundred lb fish from the dirt, add a carbontex back in with felt seal, and wavy washer outboard of star.


John

Thanks John. I guess I should of mentioned that there is a felt washer under the top hat already. I'll throw one of the old HT100's under the top hat along with the felt washer. For what it's worth, this reel originally came with HT100's, not leather or asbestos, at least according to the box and manual I have for it.

Any recommendations for sourcing a shim?

Thank again.

[alantani]

if you get enough drag out of the reel, i would not worry about it.  as long as the topmost slotted metal washer (the one with tits) still nests solidly into main gear, you're fine. 

[thorhammer]

Gotcha. The Boss as usual delivers the pragmatic answer.

Ted, who has forgotten more Senator lore than I'm gonna ever know, pinged me about this. We agree you might have part of a Bryan seven stack in there, so you could:

-As Alan said, do nothing if you're happy with drag numbers. He leaves the wavy out anyway due to corrosion issues.
-Replace all with a stock five stack. I prolly have some of it around and happy to send N/C.
-Measure the stack and see if adding two of Bryan's metals bring it flush, if they are available separately (not sure on that).

Personally, I'd keep that felt in there especially if I was gonna be on my butt in the sand with it- pull it out and put in a new one in seconds for pennies if it gets gritty and keeps sand out of your drag.