TackleTour

I've got a St Ci4+ 2500 that has a drag that "surges." I could also describe it as under a constant pull pressure it exhibits a fluctuating resistance level. I would also point out that it is not an extreme fluctuation as to the point of a major mechanical problem with the reel. It is however something that I would like to eliminate so as to avoid line breakage/stress either on the hookset or long runs by strong fish. I have fished shimano spinning reels all my life and have three of these model reels, I maintain them so am very familiar with their maintenance. I'm wondering about any tips from you guys to smooth out my reels drag? I might replace the washers, but the reel is only used for walleye, trout, and bass, nothing too punishing. Should I try replacing the metal washers within the drag stack? Any tips appreciated.

Lap the stainless steel top washer, and the aluminium ones you can't but you should check them for any deformation... You can find stainless steel washers for them which I find a better suit than the aluminium especially when using carbon fibre washers over the stock felt.

Also the washers, being felt they can be a bit squashed. You should relax that knob while in storage... Try replacing them or swap them around in the stack especially the upper 2 and top to bottom them if you know what I mean.

Steel washers and carbontex will smooth that right out I would think. You can also use some great on them to lower their start up resistance. I use Cal's tan grease on mine.

Bantam had a reply on the Shimano board explaining why felt is better as a drag material in spinning reels than carbontex at lower tensions(read most freshwater applications). I sanded the metal washers in the drag stack with plumbers tape(a very fine sandpaper) and then polished with silichrome paste. I cleaned up the felt washers, regreased, and mixed up their order(the bottom one looked the most worn). This fixed the problem. My next parts order I'll get a bunch of the felt washers for future use.

problem with felt is it gets chewed out easily on the cage design of the metal washers in shimano spinners and some of the new lt Daiwas. greased carbontex works very well even on fine drag settings and doesn't deform and chew out on the cage.

It's gotten way worse since the implementation of the new stainless drag washers on the Stradic FJ and other series of reels circa 2011... From the large diameter surface area stainless steel washers in previous mods I believe, don't get me wrong they all chew out but now the smaller felt washers last even less time.

Prep of the stainless washers is the best bet, however would help if they weren't just punched and put in, if they were tumble polished or something that could work for straight out of the box too.

But put simply felt is like soft pads in today's cars, better feel but way less lifespan.

Thanks for the advice/info, I see what you mean about the cage chewing up the felt, as I have seen this in my reels. That being said the washers still seem to last a good while for me so I'll stick with them for now. Plus I think felt washers are less prone to problems due to "overgreasing" vs. carbontex. I will say that if I commonly got into species that pulled lots and lots of line I'd be more inclined to make a switch sooner. Brown trout, bass, and walleye don't tend to pull as much as saltwater species, or large trout/salmonids running from oceans/great lakes into rivers to spawn. But I will keep this info in the back of my mind in case I ever get fed up with felt. I wish I could fish 7 days a week, then I'd get to burn up a lot more washers!