Calcutta D..rag

A friend recently discovered that his rarely fished Shimano Calcutta D's drag force has dropped tremendously to a point that lines can be peeled off the reel effortlessly even with the star on full lock down.

I'm tasked to diagnose this phenomenon and the best way around this is to strip it down for some quick tests to determine the cause for such weak drag force.

Top, Calcutta D ready for check up. Bottom, a curious design choice by Shimano to swap the places of the star drag and handles resulting in a permanent fixture of one way bearing sleeve onto the handles.

Compared to most modern bait casting reels, Shimano made a curious choice by swapping the places of the handle and the star drag. According to their marketing literature, this design will reduce rotational vibration if the handles are placed closer to the crank case. The down side to this design is that most commonly available 3rd party hot pimp-up handles will not fit this reel.

Top 2, grease splatter all over including the anti-reverse bearing. This needs proper clean up and re-lube. Bottom left, inner crank case plate is made of composite. Bottom right, externally adjustable centrifugal brakes not available for this model.

For a mid-level priced reel, you would expect some trickle down goodies from top dollar reels. Even entry level reels would have some niceties from higher end models such as externally adjustable variable brakes, 1-2 ball bearing supported pinion gears etc. This reel seems to be built with minimal gimmicks with a focus on anglers who wishes to use it as an all purpose reel with minimal care given for it grind-on day in day out.

Top, 4 drag washers, 2 different materials. 2 left most washers were fused onto the main gear. 2 right most look frail and thinning. Bottom, relevant parts that needs unclogging and cleaning takes a dive into the ultra-sonic cleaner. Note the main gear pitting around the shape of the drag washers.

Weak drag issue was immediately identified when disassembling the drag stack. Both thicker drags were fused onto the main gear resulting in 2 lesser friction surface. I suspect that the drags were installed dry and with some water exposure resulted in the drag discs fusing onto the main gear. 2 of the thinner drags look like it's already half way through its lifespan, so there's opportunity here to upgrade the drags to over sized carbontex drags.

Main gears scrubbed and scrapped clean off pitting. 2 of the thicker drag washers look to be in excellent condition to be back in action, just needs lubrication to prevent fusing with main gears. 2 thin drag washers to be replaced with over sized carbontex washers.

As a reel designed for daily beating with minimal care, teflon bushings were used in place of ball bearings as they have no chance of rust failure. They just keep going.

Teflon bushing in place of ball bearings. Not designed to achieve casting distance or finesse application.

The inner crank case plate is made of composite compared to aluminum used in higher end reels. Both materials resist corrosion and I suspect cost was the deciding factor in using composite inner crank case plate.

Reassembly means layering marine grease in between most parts and drag grease on all drag system surfaces. Marine grease on composite plate isn't to prevent corrosion but to displace water build up within the crank case.

Ball bearings which took a dip in the ultra-sonic cleaner needs to be packed with new marine grease for durability.

Out comes the weak drag washers, quick line pull test indicates that it's ready for some serious fish stopping power and most likely stronger than stock drags.

The Shimano Calcutta D isn't your regular 'casting' reel or with a specific type of fishing application. It's a general purpose reel where you are most likely not bothered to regularly strip it down for maintenance or pimp up. It's a reel to just catch some fish, any fish.