# Rebuilding Reels with Drag Smoothies



## COmmodore 64 (Jun 24, 2006)

I just ordered some Drag Smoothie sets to rebuild the drags my LC47 Daiwas. I know that Hetfield rebuilt the drags on his reels last y ear, so I'm going to give it a try. Last year I ordered some smoothies from a local place, and he never could get them in, so he refunded my money. 

This year, I ordered the drag smoothies from : Longfin Fishing. They packed and shipped the same day.

If you need to know which drag smoothies to buy you can check the Smoothdrag Website Guide. Looks like they are available for many different reels. Each kit was $2.99.

I will let everyone know how I fare rebuilding the Daiwa's


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## COmmodore 64 (Jun 24, 2006)

Got my Smoothies yesterday. Gonna give rebuilding a reel a try later today.

I've found a good thread about rebuilding a different Daiwa here: Click Me. I'm not sure I have any reel grease though. IS there anythign else I might use that I might have in the garage? Like some White Lithium grease?

Another link to rebuild tutorial: Here.

Link to Reel Schematic. That site has TONS of reel schematics! Nice site, Mike!


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## leeabu (Apr 10, 2004)

The standard Smoothie drag washers are already coated with a dry lube and should be installed dry. Clean out ALL the old lube with brake cleaner(any auto parts store). If you have the Extreme Smoothies or the Carbontex, they can be installed with a very light coating of grease or dry. I do all mine dry.


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## COmmodore 64 (Jun 24, 2006)

Did my first one. It really wasn't too hard, you jsut need a second set of hands when putting it back together. I installed the drags dry...but what about all the gears? I cleaned them up but all I had was some reel lube oil that came with my new Okuma Convectors...so I used a very, very small amount of that to regrease the gears.


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## leeabu (Apr 10, 2004)

Best way to grease the gears is a small craft paintbrush and paint it into the root of the gears.


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## COmmodore 64 (Jun 24, 2006)

2 down, 2 to go.

I did get some grease and some paint brushes and sparingly applies some grease (thanks for the tip). The gears for the level wind and the line counter are plastic, so you don't want to go crazy and spray brake cleaner into the reel housing. I just put all the metal parts in a can and washed them that way.

As a side note, the drags on the 2 reels that I've done so far looked pretty good. One was completely dry, and the washers didn't look worn at all. I don't know if they are the stock drags or not, as all 4 of the Daiwas I am servicing, I bought used.

Next reel I do I'll take some pics, I found the ones in the threads I linked to immensely helpful even thought hey weren't exactly the same as the 47s I am rebuilding.


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## COmmodore 64 (Jun 24, 2006)

Ok. I just rebuilt the drag on reel #3. 

Here's what it looks like after you take off the outer casing and the handle. It's pretty easy, 4 screws, a pinch ring, and a 12mm nut later you get the following pic. You can see the 4 screws you need to remove.










After taking out those 4 screws, you can disassemble the whole thing. You can somewhat see the drag stack in the bottom right. The drags look pretty darn good...but since I had the reels apart, I might as well put in the smooothies, Right?









Here's all the parts after I washed them up with some brake cleaner (carbon tet). Note the stainless steel mixing spoon used to hold my grease. 









This pic turned out great. The main thing to note is the brass sleeve that you use to hold the anti-reverse lever in place, and the little springs that you need to put back in their slots. They just set in there and tend to wiggle out easily.









This one didn't turn out so well. I'll try to get a better one on the next rebuild. I'm trying to show how all the pieces lay in...before you put the last part on and screw it down. (see pic 1)









All in all it's pretty easy. There's a couple small springs to manage, but they are very simple. Hope this helps someone.


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## Bester (Dec 29, 2007)

great post. Thanks.


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## COmmodore 64 (Jun 24, 2006)

Just rebuilt one of my Great Lakes 47LCs from last year. The drag washers can be installed dry, however, you do need to lube the big brass gear on the side where it meets the drag shaft. Mine had seized up pretty bad, I had to use a rubber mallet to get it off.


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## Iowa Dave (Sep 27, 2009)

Great post thanks for sharing


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## COmmodore 64 (Jun 24, 2006)

Bumping this for folks rebuilding Daiwas, and to also say that all of my Daiwas (4 of them, same model as above), exhibit the same problem. If you get a decent fish on, you gotta crank the drag down really hard to reel the fish in. This will result in the shaft getting jammed on the drag, and then you'll have no drag adjustment. Just 100% on.

Don't know what I'm doing wrong, but these Daiwas have seen a lot of use, as I bought them used. Gonna go ahead and invest in new reels. Probably Okumas.


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## K gonefishin (May 4, 2004)

I'm sure your doing something wrong or replaced parts that weren't broke, here are the most commom parts that need replaced for 47LC.
http://stores.tunasreeltroubles.com/-strse-DAIWA-SEALINE-cln-SEALINE-GREAT-LAKES-47LC/Categories.bok

Tom also offers Carbon Fiber upgrades.


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## donkey (Aug 28, 2004)

The tunasreel site looks like a great resource Kevin.


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