I posted a while back about a geary-sounding Curado I....practically new, freshley cleaned and re-lubed/greased. 

 

Would a loose star drag nut cause enough play in the drive shaft to cause a geary noise since the contact between the drive gear and the pinion gear has play in it?

 

I'm not sure how tight to crank down the drag star nut, I don't see any torque rating anywhere about it.

The star drag nut isn't there to remove whatever play is in your drive shaft. The star drag nut's purpose is to to give you more or less drag pressure because it turns along with your star drag when you want to increase or decrease drag pressure and there is no specific torque rating for it as it is not a stationary nut.

I'm not sure if it's the same problem you had but mine made noise on the retrieve and not the cast. Shimano recommends you lube the brakes every time you are down fishing.  I realized my problem is in the brake shoes hitting the drum on the retrieve making the noise.  A little oil remedied the noise for me.

Note,

A noisy reel will actually transfer the noise down the line like a guitar string.

Fact, I'm fishing a hidden in the woods a new place. I had older equipment. I'm using a lure and the sunfish are near where my line comes out of the water. There listening. My spinning reel had noisy gears. I went back with a new reel and they didn't listen. Lube your reels and make sure there quiet. I'm fishing new unfished ponds. The fish seem to be more alert.

The drag star nut only adjusts drag pressure. It has no function as far as securing the crankshaft. The whole "X-ship" design is meant to hold gears in better alignment. None of the I's I've handled were 100% silent. You either got a lemon or are ultra sensitive to the sound of the reel. I can't tell without seeing it in person. I just went through something similar with a Chronarch. Took it apart and back together 6 times without changing a thing. Eventually everything lined up well enough to quiet some but these light weight reels will never feel or sound like a D model. 

The drag star nut only adjusts drag pressure. It has no function as far as securing the crankshaft. The whole "X-ship" design is meant to hold gears in better alignment. None of the I's I've handled were 100% silent. You either got a lemon or are ultra sensitive to the sound of the reel. I can't tell without seeing it in person. I just went through something similar with a Chronarch. Took it apart and back together 6 times without changing a thing. Eventually everything lined up well enough to quiet some but these light weight reels will never feel or sound like a D model.

Do you index the gears when you take apart and re-assemble reels? If not that may be why you had to take it apart 6 times to get it smooth again.

Do you index the gears when you take apart and re-assemble reels? If not that may be why you had to take it apart 6 times to get it smooth again.

 

How do you index the gears?

 

More importantly I guess, is.....what's indexing the gears mean? Haha

I've only heard of indexing gears on a bicycle.

I've only heard of indexing gears on a bicycle.

What I read his post, I did a Google search and I came up with indexing bicycle gears too.

Yea I race road bikes and I had only heard of it on rear dérailleurs.

Anyways, I re-lubed the entire reel and used a paraffin wax on the lip of the spool and that seems to have fixed it. I'm not sure why that would result in a geary noise, but it did and now it's gone. I remember applying a thin bit of lube when I first bought the reel, per the user manual, but it wasn't geary sounding, it was more of a friction run sound.

Anyways I fished all night with it, and it's quiet as a mouse. Go figure...