Surging Drags, Help!

[A.B.]

First post on here. Have followed AT on a few other forums and have gained a wealth of knowledge.

My question, is there anyway to correct surging issues on the drags? I fish LX 6/4s loaded with 20lb off the kite and trolling deadbait. These are reels that I have had for a about 4years now and have always been well maintained, with the exception of greasing the drags, I've followed all the advice I've found from Alan. I will say that they have always felt sticky, and when backing them off under load usually results in a underwrap or 10.

Again these are reels that I purchased years ago when I first got into the game. I am well versed in drag manipulation having caught numerous marlin tuna and swords on light tackle.

I recently bought a new boat and these reels are about to see a ton more usage. My debate right now is whether to grease them and add the SFL Cams or replace them with Shimano. Can I bring these reels back to life?

Thanks in advance for the help!

[johndtuttle]

Have you opened them up and seen if there is any salt behind the drag washer? An uneven surface from intrusion may be the source of your trouble and easily fixed. Soak it in warm water to get the salt out, dry completely then grease both surfaces. Replace it if that fails.

Sometimes "lapping" the drag plate (sanding it perfectly smooth) can produce huge gains in performance.

Avet has maintained that under extreme conditions a perfectly maintained dry carbon drag washer has better performance run after run (less fade when hot) and that a hot run melts all the grease out anyways.

Most here maintain that the average guy is less worried about drag performance for grander marlin and he should be far more worried about smooth "start up" (particularly with smaller reels and lighter lines) and the prevention of saltwater behind the drag washer (especially common due to the open nature of Avet reels) which will lead to a jerky drag and horrific corrosion (see Alan's posts).

I certainly would go the greased route before going to another brand. Every other company greases their drags anyways and that is really all you would be doing. There is nothing inherently wrong with Avet drags, just some stuck in the mud thinking about how best the average guy can maintain their reel, imo.

I don't doubt that with perfect maintenance a dry drag is perfectly fine. Very, very few do perfect maintenance and a greased drag provides significant margin for safety for 99.9% of the guys out there, imho. Accurate, Daiwa, Penn, Shimano and Okuma agree so I ain't making it up. .

best

ps if you find anything post pictures for us please.

[alantani]

definitely grease the drags!  and welcome to the dark side!!!!   

[DaBigOno]

Aloha!  and definitely grease with Cal's and take a look under that drag washer if it's the older/removable type for salt intrusion as John mentioned.

[A.B.]

Thanks for the help!

Cals it is. I am also going to change out the drag cams as well.
Is there a specific set of Boca Bearings recommended for these?
I figure if I'm going to have them apart, might as well do it all and be done.

Is there a washer stack would be best for about a 7-8lb at strike and 11lb at full?

[SoCalAngler]

The stock belleville stack I think would be best. In my JX I fish 10 lbs at strike measured with line thru the guides. I fish my SX at 7-8 at strike. I'm pretty sure these would not work for you do to the kite. The one thing though when I changed to a South Florida cam the ramp up was smooth up to strike but I had more of a jump in drag pressure when going just past strike than the stock cam has. Here is a link to what I found.

http://alantani.com/index.php?topic=7246.0

EDIT: I just checked my JX which has the same drags as the LX and at 7.5 lbs at strike I get 9.5 just past strike and 10.5 at full with the stock cam and washer stack, measured with a spring scale. Once you get the sticky drag sorted you should be very close if not the same. Oh, and yes I do use Cal's grease on my drags.

[jonathan.han]

with the exception of greasing the drags, I've followed all the advice I've found from Alan.

Bottom line: If you don't grease the drags, you will get the symptoms described. An old serviced, greased drag works better than a new, dry drag out of the box. SLowly, a few reel manufacturers (let's not be specific) are quietly doing this to their new production reels, but are not proclaiming the change in their mfg. process. They wouldn't want to let consumers know that they didn't know what was best.