the drag stays locked when you back off the star........

[alantani]

this came in on a pm but i'm posting it here for your comments!

Hi Alan. Many thanks for providing excellent advice for all us Reel fanatics.I have a couple of questions regarding the anti reverse and drag performance on the above reels which I have not seen covered so far,and wondered if you could help. When fighting a fish,or with the line tied to a tree with a good bend in the rod,I can back off the star drag wheel with no noticible effect.The star becomes loose on the shaft,not up against the belville washers.It seems to me that the "anti reverse bearing" is doing its job and locking up,But once in this position it is impossible to alter the drag.If one moves the reel handle forward at this point the bearing unlocks and the rod springs back as the drag releases and the spool spins! Both my TQ 300's do this and it's a problem when a fish goes under the boat and you want to give line! My 113HN has very similar internals to the Torque but no "anti reverse bearing" and works perfectly,as does every other star drag reel I have ever owned! The Fin Nor seems to increase drag pressure by at least 50% when a fish runs fast.I have never come across a reel that ramps up so much!I have tried Cals grease,and also cleaned the washers with brake cleaner and run them dry,but no real improvement.I wondered if the big drag washer under the spool was at fault,but can't understand why. Your thoughts would be much appreciated,I keep a small boat in Cabo and fish there over the winter.The gear has to be right as you guys know-those fish dont take no prisoners!

here's what i think is going on.  i think that metal washer is stuck up against the drive shaft.  to check that, you would look for burrs or indentations into the drive shaft where the keyed metal washer sits.  it would lock in under a load and then release when you crank.  what you'd do is pull off the gear cluster and file off any burrs that you find on the drive shaft. then put it back together again and see if it works. 

regarding the finnor, i would tie off the ROD to a scale, set the drag on the reel to the number of pounds that you want, then have a local 12 year old start running with the line and watch the scale.  that way you can measure the drag during an actual "run."  let's see what the number actually is first.  alan

[sebastianr240]

13 year old thread.. this is the exact same problem i experience with my trinidad 30a which was brand new out of the box. Problem was exacerbated by overgreased drags. Still quite noticeable though, and i've noticed it in most of my star drag reels.

[alantani]

if you back off the star and crank the handle, does the drag eventually loosen?

[Gfish]

A known problem in ARB reels, especially Baitcasters. I discovered it with my Daiwa Lexa 400. Hooked the reef on a real windy day, yak was blown back so fast, I couldn't try and work it loose, cause I couldn't keep any slack in the line to disengage the spool. Loosening the star had no effect. It was stuck, had to snap it off.
Not good when you get a big'un up close to the boat or shore and it suddenly takes off! You may have loosened the star under pressure, but it didn't do any thing. SSSSNAP!
 Abu addressed this in their Revo Toro Beast with a complicated set of parts on the gear sleeve. Yeah, I bought one and it does work.

John Tuttle did a tutorial in the Ambassadeur section,page 14, on 03/11/17, "Revo Toro Beast Preview". He gives a good in-depth explaination on how it works.

[sebastianr240]

if you back off the star and crank the handle, does the drag eventually loosen?

as soon as i turn the handle slightly the spool starts spinning and nearly backlashes. That is if the star is backed all the way off. On my reel it stops backing off under pressure at about 2 pounds of drag if i had to guess. In order to get it to go to its set level below that, the handle must be turned. If this is a function of the ARB, I'll add that to a list of reasons i don't prefer them 

[alantani]

nah, it's just the drag washers being tight.  it's either because the metal washers are a tight fit or because there is suction from the grease.  either way, i wouldn't worry about it. 

[sebastianr240]

nah, it's just the drag washers being tight.  it's either because the metal washers are a tight fit or because there is suction from the grease.  either way, i wouldn't worry about it. 

Thanks for the info. As a king fisherman i hope over time it goes away, I use very light drag settings. Removed the stock grease and did a thin coat of cals which helped a bit

[Bryan Young]

I would back off the star, hold the spool and crank the handle as fast as I cold to try to heat up and loosen the drag grease. That usually does it.  If not I would like open it up and wipe off the old drag grease and spread a fresh coat of Cal's Universal and Drag Grease and reassemble...

[sebastianr240]

I would back off the star, hold the spool and crank the handle as fast as I cold to try to heat up and loosen the drag grease. That usually does it.  If not I would like open it up and wipe off the old drag grease and spread a fresh coat of Cal's Universal and Drag Grease and reassemble...

Tried both of these methods already

[sebastianr240]

Thought i'd mention this,

Upon further inspection i noticed that the stock shimano CF drags are porous. So much so that if you hold them up to a light you can clearly see it shining through the washer. Is this normal/could it be causing this by any chance? I've never seen smoothdrag washers like this.

[alantani]

Shouldn't make a difference.

[sebastianr240]

Shouldn't make a difference.

Thanks Alan