Penn Torque Lever Drag 2-Speed 25N: Service Tutorial and First Look

[johndtuttle]

Ok, as promised here are the images of the crescent washer. It fits easily inside the hollow in the Thrust Bearing Assembly:



But does cover the inner race of the LS spool bearing and it is slightly loose on the spool shaft (not the identical ID):




So, under load, it is easily compressed and even though it touches the inner race of the LS Spool bearing it has minimal contribution to axial load. The outer race takes it virtually all via the thrust bearing assembly (TBA).

The function appears to be to "kick" the TBA off of the LS spool bearing when in full free spool (effectively kick the TBA off of the spool), to give maximum free spinning as there is then no friction from the TBA. With a little grease or such in there without this washer the TBA would stick to the LS spool bearing or at least rub initially hurting free spool.

The inner race is unaffected regardless, so I can only guess that this is it's role to get a little extra room for the LS Bearing and have no pressure on the spool sleeve etc but keep everything in tolerance for max free spool.

The orientation would have no effect on it's function, as near as I can tell.

So far that is what I think, could be totally wrong  .

[Tiddlerbasher]

Got it Thanks for that John. Not quite what I expected though. But if it works (and it appears to) what the heck
I'm gonna have to try something similar - Probably on my Omoto VS10 - but I think it will require a few extra mm bored into the the lh spool. I'll have to do some careful measuring (guessing?) of the spool to make sure there is 'enough' meat on it. I wonder how easy it would be to get a spare spool (just in case ).

[pitchinwedge]

One of my favorite reels, the TRQ25NLD2, needs some serious improvement.  Straight-pull strike/full/sunset drag came out at 12/18/21.  This is well short of the advertised 33 max.  I'm hoping to get this to something in the neighborhood of 15/23/30.

Went through the entire reel.  Wiped the drag washer and plate as best as I could and reapplied Cal's for zero improvement. 

Took it apart yet again, added a spool shim to the left side.  Barely any increase in drag (14/22/22) but the handle seems to be binding prematurely and the drag lever even more difficult to move.  Also, the drag increases zero from FULL to SUNSET.  Clearly something is not right. 

I'm thinking I should remove the shims , try degreasing the drag washer, and test it again. 

Is there a safe way to clean/degrease the drag washer?

[alantani]

likely you will not get anything more out of this reel.  i use mine set up with 60 pound hollow core braid and a 25 yard topshot of 40 pound fluoro, with 12 pounds of drag and 20 at full.  that is the exact profile that i want for a 40 pound line class reel.  i was not aware of the 33 pound claim, but i would never fish this reel that heavy.  still, claims like that can be disheartening. 

i think you're as good as you're going to get.   

[pitchinwedge]

Appreciate your input, Alan. 

I just assumed that 15 pounds at strike and 30 at sunset were well within the abilities of the 25N, based on Penn specs and John's tutorial.  Interestingly, all my VISX's hit their published drag numbers.  Sort of expected the TRQ's to do the same. 

About mid-way through his tutorial, John stated, "when I went to test the drag at "strike" (more on this later) I couldn't test it! Reason, the reel is spooled with 30lb leader and it broke every time before the drag slipped. We can safely say that this design removes binding at a preset at "strike" around 20-25lbs (the breaking strength of knotted 30lb leader)." ***Lucky John!

I still love this little reel, and agree I'll probably never ask it to deliver more than 20 pounds of drag on a fish.  But I must confess that I was a bit disappointed when I pulled on the scale.   

[johndtuttle]

This sort of testing discrepancy is hard to trouble shoot as there can be so many variables.

1. My test breaking the 30# leader is not very scientific, as the knot may be cutting that number well in half.

2. Real World drag numbers change a lot depending on how much line is on the reel. A very full reel will have significantly different drag number than a nearly empty one (which is where the makers test the reel). Why do they do this? Because its a consistent number independent of all the others out there where the amount of line on the spool is never the same twice.

3. The only people that really need #30 on a nearly full, small, lever drag reel are those fishing right on the bottom for yellowtail or other rascals that run to the nearest pinnacle to bust you off. Otherwise the idea of using 25# consistently at the top of the spool on a Torque 25 LD2 is kinda ludicrous. Unless you are using the reel to fight marlin out of a chair...Its just not sustainable for the man or the reel.

4. You should've bought a 12VISX.