With the drag preset knob and lever fully backed off, spool begins to slowly spin when cranking the handle. Spool should not move, what is causing the slight contact? Thank you experts.
usually bad bearings..... :-\
I'll try swapping the 26, 55A bearing. Thanks!
if they feel smooth, then just a clean and lube might do the trick.
The bearing that the drag plate rides on (26) may be hanging up on the spool shaft and not allowing the drag to fully release. It needs to smoothly slide on the shaft.
Thanks for all the advice. It still free spools plenty good for night time jigging. Just bother me that I couldn't figure out why.
There is always some friction thanks to the viscosity of the lubricant which forms the points of contact between the handle and thus the drive gear, then the pinion gear on the drive shaft and the bearings on the drive shaft - the inner race surface is 'fixed' to the drive side whilst the outer race surface is 'fixed' in contact with the spool.
Turn the handle and sooner or later the spool will move. The thicker the lubricant, the greater the effect. It serves to 'stick' the drive gear side of things to the spool even when everything is backed off.
It is very obvious when I compare using 'Rocket Fuel' with any grease in two different but similar reels.
I have 4 other visx and a mak-16 and this is the only one that does this. Sort of a viscous coupling.
Odd indeed then as pretty much all of my reels do it to some degree - not so noticeable on a 130 as on a 20 though!
Long shot guesses. Did you grease the drag and not get it all rubbed in? Did you put a shim washer in the wrong place?
I even lapped the shaft to no avail. Thanks for the lead.
You shouldn't be able to see any grease on the drag washer and the drag plate should be clean and dry. That should eliminate any "viscous" feeling.
Sorry to labour the point but it isn't going to be grease on the drag washers. They have been backed off according to the OP, pauly1010. It's the viscosity of grease in the bearings that, in effect, links the handle to the spool via the bearings themselves. I think one of you helpfully said it was viscous coupling.
If the spool bearings were essentially frictionless (think the lightest oil imaginable), there would be virtually no spool movement when the handle is turned; but if those bearings were rusted solid, the handle would, when turned, inevitably cause the spool to turn. Grease is somewhere between these two extremes.
I think one of the problem was there wasn't sufficient space between the keyed drag washer and the drive plate. When I added a 004" shim between the 55A and the drive plat I was able to get free spool but once the preset was tensioned the contact came back. Maybe I'll try adding more shim, still working on it.