Makaira 16 sea freespool issue

[gary760]

I had a problem with a lumpy drag on a 16sea I cleaned the drag re greased and reassembled.
While the reel was disassembled I used the opportunity to re grease the spool bearings ( I troll with this reel) and I also partly stripped the RH side plate t remove some excess grease that had built up between the high and low speed drive gears. On reasembly I noticed that there was no freespool on the reel before I fitted the drag adjustment knob.
When the knob is fitted still no freespool untill one specific setting with about 10lbs at strike then it is like I have freed off something and I get freespool. Increase drag preset less freespool. Decrease drag preset less yes less freespool.
I have 8 makairas from 15t to 50 and have serviced them all but never seen anything like this.
Oh the drag is nice and smooth now.
Any Expert with any idea what I have (undoubtedly done wrong )
Kindest regards Gary 

[mak1]

I have free spool with mine

[gary760]

Joy oh joy
The problem was I had assembled the drag plates 612 and 612-1 in the wrong positions and although you have to be pretty dumb to do this once you have done it even when you strip it down several times it's difficult to spot as it all still goes together and the pinion guard hides the recess for the c type retainer. The visible difference is the gap between the two plates is closer than it should be - this results in zero freespool on assembly. A couple of similar threads that did not resolve the issue led me to my error and the solution.
I am a happy man 🙂