Disassembled, cleaned an lubed 3 of these reels. No mods. Drag at strike is 15# with a smooth free spool. Two of the reels work as advertised but the third reel has a problem. As the drag is increased from 0 to 15# and above the reel becomes increasingly hard to turn with the handle. Need advice as to where I went wrong on reassembly and how to fix this problem. Thanks, Bob
possibly a bad pinion bearing. also, make sure you did not leave out the thrust washer (key #367) between the pinion gear and the pinion bearing.
https://fishshop.shimano.com/collections/tld50iia
thanks Alan, pinion bearing froze up. Will replace, reassemble and test. Thanks again, Bob
These reels have been troublesome. The frame in my old tld 50 cracked under 25 pounds of drag.
Broken frames are not unheard of. The 50's are known to have a weak frame.