Reel tested only 5lbs of Drag? (5500c3)

Started by cabrego, September 15, 2014, 09:53:04 PM

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cabrego

Greetings, I've got an older Abu Garcia 5500c3 underside marked 990313 17 that I have only used a dozen times or so over the last ~7 years.  I have always felt that the drag was pretty weak to the point of almost not being able to reel fish in unless I cranked the drag up to the max.  I decided to give a it a good cleaning today.  Everything was in really good shape just a bit dirty but not terrible.  I spent about 2 hours or so cleaning and lubing all components including the drag assembly.  The drag assembly had minimal wear on all components including the drag washers.  I used shimano drag grease on the drag washers.   I reassembled everything and the drag still felt pretty weak. 

I decided to put a fish scale on the end of the line and the highest tension I could achieve was 5lbs.  If I crank the spool down all the way it goes up to 6 lbs, obviously I can't fish this way.  I was expecting to get somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-15lb but was disappointed with what my little reel did, explains why every time I catch anything worth catching the reel seems to struggle.  The reel was spooled with 12lb mono and a 30lb FC liter if that matters to anyone.  I also used 2 different fish scales with virtually identical results.

Is this really all the drag I should expect from this reel?

handi2

If the drag assembly is installed correctly and I'm sure it is I would recommend Carbontex drags. There much better than the stock drag washers. Also make sure the line isn't slipping on the spool. I had a TLD in this week that had mono backing with braid on top and when turning the drag cover to get it off the entire spool of line was slipping in my hand. His complaint was no drag..!!
OCD Reel Service & Repair
Gulf Breeze, FL

cabrego

Quote from: handi2 on September 15, 2014, 11:10:32 PM
If the drag assembly is installed correctly and I'm sure it is I would recommend Carbontex drags. There much better than the stock drag washers. Also make sure the line isn't slipping on the spool. I had a TLD in this week that had mono backing with braid on top and when turning the drag cover to get it off the entire spool of line was slipping in my hand. His complaint was no drag..!!

I had a feeling I would need to upgrade to carbonex, I was just hoping to improve performance on the fly.  Will the carbonex washers increase the drag strength?    What do you mean by 'slipping on the spool'?  Does that mean the spool wouldn't be spinning?

handi2

If you can hold the spool from turning pull on the line as hard as you can without damaging anything. You may want to take the spool out. See if the line turns on the spool while the spool is held tight and not turning.
OCD Reel Service & Repair
Gulf Breeze, FL

cabrego

Quote from: handi2 on September 16, 2014, 12:03:57 AM
If you can hold the spool from turning pull on the line as hard as you can without damaging anything. You may want to take the spool out. See if the line turns on the spool while the spool is held tight and not turning.

Thanks for the tip, the line is definitely not slipping.  I'm wondering if the stretch in the mono is misleading my scale measurement.  I'm planning on putting braided line on and when I do that i would repeat the test. 

alantani

5 pounds is a good working range for this reel.  any higher and you risk damaging the gears.  honestly, you should get more drag, though.  you should get enough drag (12 pounds) to damage the gears.  is the star bottoming out?
send me an email at alantani@yahoo.com for questions!

cabrego

Quote from: alantani on September 16, 2014, 06:29:56 AM
5 pounds is a good working range for this reel.  any higher and you risk damaging the gears.  honestly, you should get more drag, though.  you should get enough drag (12 pounds) to damage the gears.  is the star bottoming out?
After some thinking I came to a similar conclusion regarding the working range, 5lbs seems reasonable.  The star is indeed bottomed out when I made the scale measurements.  One thing to note is that the scale measurements were made without a rod.connected to the reel.  It seems to make sense that the Addition of the rod's leverage would cause the scale to read something higher.  Since it is not clear how manufacturers measure their rod's drag this could be another explanation.

I double checked the drag assembly especially the tension washer configuration anfd ever thing was correct.

handi2

If you have anymore spring washers add them to get the star from bottoming out. Then you will have more room to tighten the drag.
OCD Reel Service & Repair
Gulf Breeze, FL

Bryan Young

Your stock drag may be compressed and may need new drag washers.
:D I talk with every part I send out and each reel I repair so that they perform at the top of their game. :D

handi2

I have the Carbontex in stock and can mail them to you or go to Smoothdrag.com.
OCD Reel Service & Repair
Gulf Breeze, FL

cabrego

Thanks for the replies-I installed the 4 carbonex drag washers and I am having problems getting the reel to function properly.  It seems that when I put it together the reel is very tight as if it is binding on something.  All parts are smooth when tested independently but once I put it together something is not happy--any idea what it could be?

Keta

Hi, my name is Lee and I have a fishing gear problem.

I have all of the answers, yup, no, maybe.

A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.
Mark Twain

cabrego

My problem was the plastic brakes near the spool were crushed and catching the rim.  I found replacement brakes locally and everything is better than before now that the carbon washers are in.

I am sure I have much more drag pressure, I only have 10 lbs of braid on the reel now so I'm pretty sure I can pop the line with the drag pressure.

Simon Everett

The amount of drag to use when fishing depends as much on the rod as the reel - you should balance the rod and reel performance together. I am no reel expert, but I can catch fish on light tackle.

When the rod is just prior to its full arched over state, say about 75 - 80 degrees of bend (the full power comes in at 90 degrees, the 'test curve' of the rod) that is when your reel should peel line off smoothly. Up until that point the flex in the rod is protecting your line and hook hold. The line strength needs to be matched to this figure as well, and the general rule of thumb is 30% of line strength is when the reel starts to yield line - so your 5lb drag is about right for the 15lb line you would use on the reel - matched to a rod of about 2lbs test curve. If you are using this reel on a stiffer rod your outfit, whilst it might work, is not a balanced one.

The actual mechanics of you get that drag to work I will leave to the experts on here. I just keep mine working, I have no workshop, just the kitchen table and some hand tools toopen the reels up, clean and relube them. My philosophy for everything is that maintenance is cheaper than replacement. ;D