Working on a 420ss, so using Sal's great tutorial. Looks like he added a carbon fiber to the original Teflon washer for the front drag, so now 2 washers instead of one. Looks like he replaced the small, thick Teflon rear drag washer (thrust washer) with a carbon fiber and a delrin. Am I understanding his setup correctly? Sure miss his presence...
Hmmm, the original set-up in the first pictures didn't show that small washer which I guess would be the under the spool one. It's in the modified drag pictures at the bottom of the post.
Looks like he added 1-carbon fiber washer and 1-delrin to the top stack, then kept the original Teflon and M.G.300-like spring washer... Darn, gotta recheck his post to see what order they are in...
Edit: given the wording and pictures, I can't tell what's going-on, but I'm easily confused by the way others write. Someone else here probably knows...
Quote from: MACflyer on October 31, 2025, 12:19:30 PMWorking on a 420ss, so using Sal's great tutorial. Looks like he added a carbon fiber to the original Teflon washer for the front drag, so now 2 washers instead of one. Looks like he replaced the small, thick Teflon rear drag washer (thrust washer) with a carbon fiber and a delrin. Am I understanding his setup correctly? Sure miss his presence...
Here is the schematic:https://www.mysticparts.com/Assets/images/pennparts/schematics/420ss.pdf (https://www.mysticparts.com/Assets/images/pennparts/schematics/420ss.pdf)
More precisely, it looks to me like he put the carbon fiber washer between the spool and the keyed metal washer (key 57) and
replaced the the stock rear drag washer (key 60) with a Delrin washer.
It should be noted that this new carbon fiber washer is going to slide against whichever surface has less friction. That could be the spool. With type II anodizing, you could get some abrasion on the spool face. Plus if this reel is going to go anywhere near saltwater, carbon fiber and aluminum do not play nice in terms of galvanic corrosion risk. I would definitely lubricate both sides of the carbon fiber disk with a grease suitable for drags, making sure that the spool face is well coated.
Sal noted that the CF disk was probably not necessary. You might get a smoother drag with an extra washer, but I would consider trying Delrin or Rulon or another Teflon washer first. You may still get some rubbing on the spool face, but at least it is not from CF, which is more abrasive and a higher corrosion risk.
With such light drag requirements, all you can really do to potentially improve the reel is to make the drag smoother. An extra disk in the stack can help sometimes, but you have to test before and after to know for sure. It could end up worse.
If the drag feels smooth enough as is, then you don't have to do anything.
This is one of those times that makes me miss Sal too. He was always up for a respectful debate. I would have liked to discuss the merits of the extra CF with him and see if one of us changed our mind.
-J
Thanks Gregg and Dave. Won't be fishing it in saltwater, and really don't need any more drag with 4lb mono or 6lb braid line. A smoother drag would be nice though. So thinking about modifying the original setup, and Sal usually came up with some great ideas that worked.