ProGear Albacore Special 280 - drag

[Bryan Young]

Hi Brad,

Those are not CF washers.  The are like brake material found in your car, and was a common washers back in those days.  Order up some Carbontex washers and Cal's grease to grease the washers.  Then you will have the ultimate star drag reel.

Bryan

[bradz]

Thanks Bryan.
As someone else mentioned,should I just order an extra cf washer to make up for the fact that they are thinner?
Also, should I put a cf under the main gear in place of the "plastic" one?

Thanks again
Brad

[Bryan Young]

Hi Brad, do you ever sleep?

That is correct.  Order up a CF washer for under the main gear.  Calculate the stack of the washers you currently have, minus the metal washers, and order enough CF washer to at least what you currently have.

Bryan

[alantani]

try matching them up against something on this list.  http://alantani.com/index.php?topic=21.0

[bradz]

Hi Bryan
Yep, I do sleep, but when you guys respond, my phone beeps and I feel obliged to respond. Plus I have a baby that keeps getting me up.

Alan, is ht-100 as good as carbontex? That is, am I better off getting the exact thickness washers in ht-100, or building up the thickness with carbontex?

I'm back off to sleep now.

Cheers
Brad

[alantani]

the material and performance will be the same. the advantage of carbontex that they will fit for sure.  penn ht-100's often have to be ground down or filed out. 

[rodent]

bradz, while reading a post TUTORIAL: progear 545/541 (slides 25-27) by mark mayo, he mentions that if the eared washer is bent you may lose drag pressure.  his recommendation is to place it with the bent ears up or replace the washer with a new washer. aloha rodney.

[bradz]

Thanks everyone.
I will be giving Dawn at Smoothrag a call later.
Alan, the #6-116 in HT-100 are the right OD but far to big on the ID, so i will be going Carbontex.
I will let you know how I go in the next week or so.
Cheers
Brad

[alantani]

that is probably the one that i used in the past.  it would work just fine.

[Bryan Young]

The HT-100 works fine for the 2 washers in the gear, but the last one on the top should be a Carbontex due to the ID size.

[alantani]

a smaller penn washer still works.  it is not an exact fit, but a full set of penn washers can be mcgiver'd to fit.  if dawn has a carbontex set to fit, that would obviously be better. 

[Bryan Young]

That's true.  I was only looking at the larger ones.

[bradz]

I have sent off a request to Dawn at Smoothdrag for the required washers. They are 32mm OD and 9.7mm ID.
Because the originals are 1.63mm thick and there are 3 of them, they total 4.9mm. The carbontex are only 1mm thick which means I will need 5 washers instead of the original 3 in order to keep the drag stack the same height.

Is my rationale correct? If so, do I simply put some of the carbontex back-to-back in between the metal washers? Will this reduce the drag capacity if some of the carbontex are back to back?

I have also ordered one for under the main gear to replace the plastic looking one.

[Bryan Young]

Stacking of the carbontex will not have any negative effects.  Just be sure to grease all drag washers.  You are gonna love that reel.

[bradz]

Thanks Bryan. That is what I wanted to hear.

After having pulled the reel apart a few times in the last couple of days I have come to realise how easy this reel will be to maintain. Having said that however, there does appear to be a little bit of play in the spool, forwards and backwards. It is not the anti-reverse (that is perfect) it is just the spool on the spool shaft. I didn't notice it before so I will pull it down again tonight to see if I can figure out why.

Cheers
Brad