drag issues

[LGF]

Bought a second hand reel some time ago and fished with it every now and then. I then bought tow new reels (same reels) then only did i realize that the 2nd hand reel did not have the same drag as the new ones.


spoke a tackle dealer and he asked if I had used drag grease yet? I said no, so he said to bring it in he'll fix it.


Question is, what is drag grease? Where can one get some or what is the best alternative?

[REEFMAN]

Any Teflon based grease... like those used in RC Hobby shops for bearings in the cars?
Or get some Cal's grease (the best) from Jagged edge.
Depends what washers they are whether they need greasing or not...

[LGF]

Reefs, yeah, not sure if they're ceramic or teflon based, can't take pics now and cannot find something on the net, so it'll have to wait till I get home on Monday, but the washer seems to be made of several layers of fibre which even if clean has an oily feel to it, so my guess is teflon, however on most other models (cannot find specs on the exact quantum reel) they fit ceramic washers?

[REEFMAN]

nAH LGF, no-one uses Teflon for Drag washers - it's unsuitable. I was talking about the Grease being Teflon based...

The Drag washers should either be Carbon fibre based or felt.

[LGF]

Kay, then it's felt, definitely felt based, blue in color, looks like the same material one would use to make a "packing" seal between two metal parts to prevent oil from being pushed through.


Quantum uses (i kid you not ) Ceramic and Carbon washers, the ceramics seems to be the new way for them to go as all the newer reels seems to be fitted with that, dunno why? Perhaps I got the cat by the tail, and perhaps the system is ceramic, not too sure, but nonetheless ceramics is part of their drag systems.

[pieta]

In the earlier days we use to use vaseline on the Penn 500. Use to work very well. I bay my drag greaze from king. Very expencife but work very well. Just remember to loosen you drags compleetly when reels are storedmand not in use. This will save you lots on drag washers and services..

[REEFMAN]

Good point Pieta. A reel stored with a tightened drag will ruin the Drag washers, compressing them beyond deformation. Also the Drag spring washer will also deform after prolonged pressure, resulting in a weakened Drag performance. Drag spring might need to be replaced.

[REEFMAN]

Ya I see some of their Multipliers use Ceramic drag washers. What model Quantum reel is this LGF? A baitcaster?

[LGF]

Reefs, yes it's a baitacster, PT TOUR.

[REEFMAN]

Found this on Ultimate Bass.com:

For quantum to call that a ceramic drag is kind of misleading. One would   think that would mean that the reel has a ceramic disk between the gear   and the top plate. You see, a regular drag system consists of a fiber   washer of some sort that is sandwiched between the main gear and a steel   plate. It can be just one washer and one plate or several layers. What   Quantum did was  to replace a stainless steel plate with a ceramic   plate, but still use a fiber disk between the gear and the plate. I   don't know what the ceramic plate is actually supposed to do for us in a   bass fishing reel. If it was in an ocean reel, I might understand that   will fighting an 800 lb marlin you could get some serious heat from the   steel plates of a normal drag and ceramic might be better, but for a   bass reel, if the drag slips it'sgonna be a small amount and won't be   generating heat. If they really wanted to improve drag systems, they   would use better materials for the fiber washer. Quantum still uses a   waxed paper fiber washer in most reels. It quite often will stick to the   gear or the plate and then tears chunks loose when it slips. They did   step up to a carbon fiber washer in the smoke and that's what they   should be using in all reels.
What you can do is replace the paper   fiber washer with a carbon fiber washer and get a much smoother and   consistent drag. If you want more drag, you would need to use thinner   washers and sandwich a plate between them, but that would take some   playing around to find one that would work.

[LGF]

Thanx Reefs, now that makes a lot of sense, so my reels, except the smokes, all have the fibre washers made from wax paper, which would explain the oily feel they have.


Kay so other than replacing the washers with smoke, carbon and plate configuration washers, what would you suggest I could do to improve the drag on the wax paper washer that is currently fitted to the reel?