I have a Lews hypermag baitcaster the older model not the newer one. When I tighten the star drag to the point where it’s almost tight it feels rough and not smooth. Any ideas what could be causing it? I have another one and it feels buttery smooth when I tighten the drag.

I am not quite following you.

 

Is it the drag slippage that is not smooth? Or, are you saying when you crank it down tight the reel itself does not feel smooth- as in gears maybe?

 

When the reel is not cranked down tight on the drag, is this reel as smooth as the other one?

 

I should stop here. Until we all know exactly what part of the reel is not smooth it is impossible to even guess.

 

I pulled the schematic off their website for their latest model. Not sure if the same or close.

 

Give us a little more info and maybe we can help narrow it down. 

 

Is this reel under warranty?

34 minutes ago, FloridaFishinFool said:

I am not quite following you.

 

Is it the drag slippage that is not smooth? Or, are you saying when you crank it down tight the reel itself does not feel smooth- as in gears maybe?

 

When the reel is not cranked down tight on the drag, is this reel as smooth as the other one?

 

I should stop here. Until we all know exactly what part of the reel is not smooth it is impossible to even guess.

 

I pulled the schematic off their website for their latest model. Not sure if the same or close.

 

Give us a little more info and maybe we can help narrow it down. 

 

Is this reel under warranty?

As I tighten the star drag it feels rough not when I’m reeling.

Maybe the threading on the crankshaft is the issue?  As you tighten it, the square nuts threads cross thread further down?   Does that make sense??

 

10 minutes ago, MiceNReets said:

Maybe the threading on the crankshaft is the issue?  As you tighten it, the square nuts threads cross thread further down?   Does that make sense??

 

Yeah that makes sense, I’ll just end up taking it apart and inspecting it.

Make sure the star isn't rubbing on the reel side plate when tightened down.  You'd have to be missing parts for that to happen but it happens from time to time.

Sounds like some foreign material has made its way inside.. take it apart and wipe it down, I’m guessing problem solved. 

Also it might be normal if you are assembling the reel.  Drag star clickers will feel rough when tightening down the drag star from fully backed off until the clicker parts align and start clicking.  This is usually something you only encounter when assembling the reel and are threading the drag star and clicker mechanism down the handle shaft before fitting the handle.  If the reel is assembled and doing this then perhaps the clicker is broken and is making the drag star rotations feel rough instead of clicking.  In that case, remove the clicker and inspect or just discard it and replace it with a few flat washers.  Clicking reel parts are a meme anyways.  No one needs that.

1 hour ago, F14A-B said:

Sounds like some foreign material has made its way inside.. take it apart and wipe it down, I’m guessing problem solved. 

I’ll second this. There’s not much to it: star presses on spring washers that press on the ar sleeve which presses on the drag plate and washer stack. If it’s rough reeling I have another solution. You’ll need to contact me for that one. 

15 hours ago, Jonny15678 said:

I have a Lews hypermag baitcaster the older model not the newer one. When I tighten the star drag to the point where it’s almost tight it feels rough and not smooth. Any ideas what could be causing it? I have another one and it feels buttery smooth when I tighten the drag.

Since you have two, separate them side by side and disassemble both from the handle to down to the side plate keeping all parts in order and compare. Make sure to note the orientation of belville spring washers #71 with respect to each other. There really aren't that many parts as you can see from the schematic below. No square nut and compression spring like Daiwas. Should be easy to figure out what's what quickly. Hopefully the threads on the main shaft aren't fubar.

 

Don’t see anything visibly wrong with the threads.

Those belleville washers look wrong to me.  Like they are inverted.  Is that clicker catching on the upwards curved top belleville washer? 

If I had both reels on bench, I could install those washers right on one reel, and flip them over the wrong way on the other reel and you would not, or should not, be able to even tell the difference because they work either way.

 

Just so long as both washers are not aligned together. They must be opposed to each other and either way will work.

 

The clicker should never touch these.

 

I am also wondering if the drag star with clicker can rub the edge of side plate when cranked down tight?

 

All of us reel techs want that reel on our bench pronto! Nothing we love more than playing around inside of reels.

This reel was easy to disassemble but a pain to re assemble. The main gear has to fit inside the side plate cover first than you have to insert the shaft into that.

2 minutes ago, Jonny15678 said:

This reel was easy to disassemble but a pain to re assemble. The main gear has to fit inside the side plate cover first than you have to insert the shaft into that.

 

I would have gone all the way to part #50 on the reel frame. Then side plate. Then other stuff.

28 minutes ago, FloridaFishinFool said:

 

I would have gone all the way to part #50 on the reel frame. Then side plate. Then other stuff.

There’s a notch inside the side plate that prevents you from assembly it the normal way.

2 hours ago, Jonny15678 said:

This reel was easy to disassemble but a pain to re assemble. The main gear has to fit inside the side plate cover first than you have to insert the shaft into that.

 

1 hour ago, Jonny15678 said:

There’s a notch inside the side plate that prevents you from assembly it the normal way.

Did you remove the lube port screw and cap before you pulled the side plate? That would cause the trouble you're describing, if I'm understanding this correctly.

 

2 hours ago, Jonny15678 said:

Don’t see anything visibly wrong with the threads.

 My eyesight is getting a little bad these days but is there an extra washer below the crush washers. I don't see it in the schematics. 

 

Also, I have taken one or two of these apart and from what I remember it was not fun.  

 

15 minutes ago, FishTank said:

 My eyesight is getting a little bad these days but is there an extra washer below the crush washers. I don't see it in the schematics. 

 

 

 

That is actually pretty common. Quite often in production they have to add shims or remove them so each reel meets their standards. When I worked in a reel repair shop we saw a lot of this type of thing. Reels with parts not on schematics, or schematics showing parts not found in a reel but another does have it. Just how it goes.

 

I doubt that would cause any roughness. At least I've never seen it do that. I'm beginning to wonder if there is anything wrong at all. Just maybe out of tolerance or something.

 

This is possibly getting into what I was talking about in other threads about tolerances, but I won't go there.

1 hour ago, PhishLI said:

 

Did you remove the lube port screw and cap before you pulled the side plate? That would cause the trouble you're describing, if I'm understanding this correctly.

 

Yes

26 minutes ago, FishTank said:

My eyesight is getting a little bad these days but is there an extra washer below the crush washers. I don't see it in the schematics. 

It's shown as part #49 (optional)

 

26 minutes ago, FishTank said:

 My eyesight is getting a little bad these days but is there an extra washer below the crush washers. I don't see it in the schematics. 

 

Also, I have taken one or two of these apart and from what I remember it was not fun.  

 

Yes there is two washers.

20 hours ago, Jonny15678 said:

I have a Lews hypermag baitcaster the older model not the newer one. When I tighten the star drag to the point where it’s almost tight it feels rough and not smooth. Any ideas what could be causing it? I have another one and it feels buttery smooth when I tighten the drag.

I'm seeing at least 2 washers between the spring washers and the roller clutch sleeve. Right? Is the other reel the same? Regardless, did you figure out the problem?

 

 

 

You can play around with the positioning of those 4 washers under the click holder. Leave that one where it is, but take one of those 49's and try it on top of the belleville washers.

 

As long as you keep the same stack height, you can move them around some. Just keep those belleville's opposed to each other and never aligned.

19 minutes ago, FloridaFishinFool said:

You can play around with the positioning of those 4 washers under the click holder. Leave that one where it is, but take one of those 49's and try it on top of the belleville washers.

 

As long as you keep the same stack height, you can move them around some. Just keep those belleville's opposed to each other and never aligned.

Alright thanks