Tinidad TN40 cast control

[Owen]

G'day Alan,
Just wanted to say thanks for all your great work and get a few thoughts.
Recently I purchased a Trinidad TN40.
I decided to load it with 40lb braid and realising that it would hold much more than the 300 yards on my spool I decided to run the braid on, fill up the rest with mono and then wind the whole lot back onto another spool so that I could then repeat the process, putting the mono back on first and ending up with a full spool.
I then run about 10 yards of mono leader to the terminal.  I note you guys tend to run a much bigger top shot than is common here in Oz .
Anyway my problem is that to take the line back off the reel I employed my trust battery drill.  But I forgot reduce the drag control tension and the prolonged high speed spinning wore a groove in the copper tension washer that bears on the main shaft causing it to basically lose all tension.
Part# 182 on the schematic
http://fish.shimano.com/media/fishing/SAC/techdocs/en/Conventional/02TN_40_v1_m56577569830646548.pdf
I reversed the washers and made it functional again, but I must admit I was pretty disappointed in the design.  Whilst the amount of friction/heat in reel use may never reach the levels that I inadvertently (stupidly) subjected it to, the design seems doomed to constant wear and loss of tension on the washers.  Relying on the spring pressure of two copper/brass washers seems pretty basic.
A spring and bearing would be my choice, but of course bearings can fail too.
Have you found this area to be problematic on these reels?
I also find the adjustable clicker tension seems to offer little or no perceivable difference between minimum & maximum settings although I am yet to fish it with live baits.
This is no big deal, but I do wonder what the real life benefits of this feature are.
Any other observations/tips on this model?

Cheers,
Owen
Gladstone, Queensland, Australia

[alantani]

no problem, owen!  i always ship these reel out with zero load and zero freeplay.  i don't come across this problem often.   at least here in the states, shimano is very good about support.  they will typically send out parts like this for free.  you pay a premium price for the reel, but you get premium service in return.  alan