Reel Repair by Alan Tani

In my experience, when run within their capacities, they're fantastic.
I have two and have fished them a lot.
They're exactly as you suggest - a signifcantly beefier step-up from an Abu 6500.
Again my experience but, with regards to manufacture quality, Accurates are top-notch.
I also have two Boss Extreme Obsidian BX600NNs and have owned three or four others over the years.
Manufacturer support has also been faultless over this time.
All the best, Justin

Looking at the picture of the spool, I'd say the drag adjusting shims are stacked too high!!! There should never be more than three adjusting shims on the left side of the spool. Yours is getting pushed too far to the right from the start. Somebody stacked them that way because of a free-spool issue. Ask me how I know!!!!! On the Valiants, sometimes you have to put a bearing spacer on the backside of the spool shaft against the E-clip. This is to push the drag plate off of the plastic drag plate cover after you have assembled the spool. There are a few different size shims: .010, .015, .020, .025  You just have to play with them until you get it right. That's why it's so hard for the average layman to service their own Accurate reels. There's a shim for everything in different sizes that may need to be stacked in different sizes. Hope this helps!!!!

Petah