Daiwa Saltiga 50HK Star Drag bottoming out

[Busanga]

The star drag bottoms out (metal to metal) when tightened down and the line still comes off the reel when i pull it by hand.

This reel is hardly used (maybe twice, and stored away in cupboard with star drag unwound) everything looks new on it.

There also seems alot of free turn from wound right out to when the drag starts to engage

what is best way to address this ?

[boon]

Has the reel ever been taken apart?

Check the braid isn't slipping on the spool.

Might be missing a washer or have something out of order in the drag stack, although I'd be surprised if that was the case with a Saltiga unless someone has worked on it.

EDIT: Check out this post on another forum for some good pictures of how it should go together:
https://www.ultimateangling.co.za/index.php?topic=732.0

[oldmanjoe]

The star drag bottoms out (metal to metal) when tightened down and the line still comes off the reel when i pull it by hand.
what is best way to address this ?

I believe the drag stack need attention .   New or thicker drag washers or add a metal washer to take up the space . 

[Busanga]

Reel is new used twice. All parts are in order as new. Have compared it to schematic. Line is not slipping (mono line)

Where would I ideally fit a spacer to stop bottoming out ?

[boon]

This reel is not some ropey 1940s Penn with tolerances of "about so big".
If the drag is not working there is a fault you need to identify and resolve, not mask the issue by shoving spacers in the reel and hoping.

More root cause analysis is required. Lay the entire drag stack out (from the bottom of the post to the reel handle nut) and take a photo of it.

[jurelometer]

That HK is an unusual variant, must be regional.  The drag stack order in the tutorial Boon pointed to has an eared washer at the bottom of the stack-bizarre!  Agree with Boon on posting your stack layout in a photo.  It would be useful to post a photo of the schematic as well.

The tutorial shows that the spring load is  provided  by keyed wave washers. It is possible that these washers have to be rotationally oriented so that the high spots on the waves press against each other to provide the required stack height. Wave washers are also notorious for flattening out due to fatigue.  This may or may not be visible. 

Once you have verified that the stack is in order (also pay attention to eared drag washers - sometimes the ears are not flat/flush and have to be oriented properly), it is easy enough to toss a couple small diameter washers on top of the wave washer and see if the drag stack operates properly without bottoming out.  If that is the case, I would personally switch to stacking some Belleville washers.  You might lose a bit of fine tuning (which is overrated IMHO), but will have a more reliable solution. 

On other thought:  It looks like the HK only has three fiber washers/ active drag surface pairs, compared to 5 on the more common 50A model.  Plus if the HK has a higher gear ratio, this will also diminish the drag capacity proportionally.  You might be expecting more drag than the reel actually supports.  It would be useful to check with a scale on a reasonably full spool and compare against the drag capacity that came with the paperwork.

Usually, you can always get more drag out of a star drag drag reel stack with some shims and a willingness to apply a high amount of torque to the star, but at some point you will be exceeding the load capacity of another component. The drag slipping is what limits the load on  all of the reel subsystems and frame.
 
-J