It's not difficult to turn, it just doesn't turn freely. Hit the handle pretty good and it goes around about 5-6 times and stops. If you turn the handle very slowly it almost appears to "catch" or get a little resistance at certain points. I've throughly cleaned this reel, flushed out the bearings, ran the bearing through an ultrasonic cleaner, flushed them out again and the bearings- both side bearing and also the main shaft bearing is turning very freely on my bearing checker. I opened it up again and just turned the shaft with my hand and I don't feel any resistance. My lingering thought is . . . could it be the friction ring? It doesn't appear damaged and it is seated properly, but that is the only thing I can think of. Any ideas?
Check the anti-reverse out. Or try spinning it with the main gear removed, will narrow down the source of the "dragging".
" Hit the handle pretty good... "
do you mean smacking it to check "freespin",
or you actually hit it hard, that started the trouble?
how much "mileage"; how much "inadvertent winching"
might be time for a new main, while they're available
No, no - just hitting it to check freespin. That didn't start the issue. Not a lot of mileage on this reel. It is fairly new. It is in good shape.
friction ring deformed & caused Shimbindo in earlier models
supposedly that was fixed (better material) long before CI4
remove it -- if the problem goes away, replace it
or, DO WITHOUT -- it's not essential, if you don't snap-cast aggressively, or have a heavy custom handle knob