Avet Lever Drag Adjustment

[Gerry Zagorski]

As with all lever drag reels there are trade offs... The disk drags are silky smooth but I do a lot of dead sticking, drifting and live lining. Without a line out tension nob like you have on most conventional reels, you are forced to try and adjust the lever drag to control line out tension. The problem is there seems to be no adjustment between the bait and strike settings. In the bait setting it's too loose and once you move the lever drag even slightly past the bait setting, you go right into the stike drag setting.

Looks like Avet has some special cams for this purpose. I just ordered one and will let you know how I make out. If any of you have used these let me know what you experience is.

From the Avet website.

The South Florida and Kodiak cam is a replacement drag adjustment cam with a less aggressive ramp profile to allow a finer lever adjustment range for extremely light drag settings. Very popular for light line sailfish and tournament kingfish with LX and JX models, and salmon and other light line species for the SX - MX models. Choose the cam insert for a permanent retrofit to your reel, or choose the arm with the cam already installed for quick "no tools" changeability back to the original aggressive cam when needed. Specify color when ordering the arm. We suggest ordering a different color arm to easily distinguish from the original arm with the standard cam. These cams do not have the "Bait Setting" detent, for ultra fine lever adjustment immediately from the free-spool position forward.

[MVP]

Gerry

Here is a tip i learned years ago when Capt Fred (Andreas Toy) trailered his boat to the keys to do some fishing out of Islamorada. We can right a book on that experience as it was quite the road trip.

Our first day out we got schooled as our northeast techniques and rigging methods did not work so well on the sailfish. Had my friend Capt Bobby Maino who is a long time resident hook us up with Capt Curt the next day to run our boat and show us how it is done down there. As for drag adjustment one of the tips we learned was to use a small piece of rubber coated telephone wire that we would wrapp around foregrip of rod and then attatch to the line while keeping reel in free spool. This kept the line from running of the reel and allowed fish to pick up the bait without feeling the resistence of the drag. Works beeter on spiining gear put can be adapted to level drag reels as i tried it out when i got back to jersey.

Caught alot fish after listening to the locals as well as other things. There were no digitals cameras back then as all my pictures are in an album. Will need to get digatal copies one day and postl

[Gerry Zagorski]

Interesting solution Alex... That sounds like on hell of a road trip!!

Update - Me and Bill installed the lever drag cam and it looks like it's going to do the trick. A fairly simple install. Remove the drag adustmet cap and spring and the level handle comes off the reel.... Turn the handle over to the back side, take old cam out and install new one.

There is no longer a bait setting with this cam, the lever travels from free spool to strike with no stops in between and there seems to be a lot more line adjustment in it. Field testing this week.

BTW - Factory told me these cams will only work with Righty reels so once again you South Paws are screwed ;)

[Sharkyispy]

Gerry, thanks for sharing, added an MX to the arsenal this winter and will be looking at swapping this out as well. Interested in hearing your feedback on it's performance out there......

[MrAC1980]

Great post Gerry, may def have to consider this upgrade to one of my Avets! Any local sponsor have these in stock so we can don't have to pay for the shipping from Avet?

[Gerry Zagorski]

Great post Gerry, may def have to consider this upgrade to one of my Avets! Any local sponsor have these in stock so we can don't have to pay for the shipping from Avet?

Not sure Ant... I got mine from the factory.

[tropics]

Interesting solution Alex... That sounds like on hell of a road trip!!

Update - Me and Bill installed the lever drag cam and it looks like it's going to do the trick. A fairly simple install. Remove the drag adustmet cap and spring and the level handle comes off the reel.... Turn the handle over to the back side, take old cam out and install new one.

There is no longer a bait setting with this cam, the lever travels from free spool to strike with no stops in between and there seems to be a lot more line adjustment in it. Field testing this week.

BTW - Factory told me these cams will only work with Righty reels so once again you South Paws are screwed ;)

I will never buy another Avet just for that :rolleyes: Lefties Rull:D
Hope it works out as planned Gerry

[Gerry Zagorski]

I will never buy another Avet just for that :rolleyes: Lefties Rull:D
Hope it works out as planned Gerry

You Lefties are special Rich ;)

Update - It seems like there is some adjustment between Free and Strike now but not as much as I would prefer. Still loads up too quickly when you move the lever up from Free and wants to go right into the strike drag setting. Only fished it once and didn't catch squat so the jury is still out.... The true test will be drifting for Fluke.

[Gerry Zagorski]

OK now I am on a mission here :mad: Called the Avet factory and spoke to their tech suppport.... The cam will give you some adustment but removing the Pusher Bushing (pn 6) and adding a few additional sets of Belville Washers (pn 5) to make up that space gives you more adjustment....

These washers get compressed and decompressed based on the position of the lever drag lever and cam. When you remove the pusher bearing which is a fixed part and has no flex, and add the washers which are concave and have flex, this gives more flex/movement which in cooperation with the spring and cam allows more adjustment.

See my 1st grade drawing below:

A few notes

- You are going to remove the Pusher Bushing and start by adding 2 additional set of Belville Washers....(you might need 3 additional sets but start with 2)

- Washers are to be installed like this ()()()() to allow for max compression

- Very important that the last washer on the end that meets up with the bearing is installed like this ) rather than this (... If installed like this ( it will rub up against the bearing and could ruin it.

More to follow I'm sure ;)

[Sharkyispy]

In Curly language......Ohhh, A science project ehhhhhhh.....;)

[MVP]

Gerry thanks for the detailed info. You now have a PHD in reel design
Pictures really helped understand what you were writing.

[HDMarc]

Great post Gerry, think I'm gonna try this on one of my Avets. If Avet would just come up with a better pinion bearing design, like a radial load bearing that wouldn't fail if you happen to over tighten the drag, these reels would be virtually indestructible.

[MrAC1980]

Hmm I wonder if by adding these additional belvilles you can get more drag pressure out of these things then 9lbs at strike. Gerry does the new cams still have a stop index at the strike position?

[mike1010]

Great post Gerry, think I'm gonna try this on one of my Avets. If Avet would just come up with a better pinion bearing design, like a radial load bearing that wouldn't fail if you happen to over tighten the drag, these reels would be virtually indestructible.

You don't have to exceed the max recommended drag setting to crunch the pinion bearing. I set my avets' drags with a scale, service the reels faithfully, and the pinion bearings still need periodic replacement. A shame, considering the overall goodness of the reels.

[MrAC1980]

Mike, next time you replace your bearings, tear them apart and pack them with grease them before you install them. They will perform 100% better and last 10x longer. You also don't need to get bearings from Avet, you can get the specs for the bearings on Alan Tani's site and buy them elsewhere.

[Gerry Zagorski]

Hmm I wonder if by adding these additional belvilles you can get more drag pressure out of these things then 9lbs at strike. Gerry does the new cams still have a stop index at the strike position?

Yes Ant... you have free, strike and full. No bait setting though.

[JerseyHooker.Com]

We have been doing this for years ....

[Gerry Zagorski]

We have been doing this for years ....

So the extra bellville washers did the trick Rich?? Did you use the cam and the washer or just washers or just cam?

[shrimpman steve]

Too confusing to me. I'll just use the clicker:)

[MrAC1980]

Gerry I think he meant the CAM. I'm pretty sure if you go beyond 9-10lbs of pressure on these little reels you blow out with Pinion Bearings, even after you tear them apart and grease them.

[giantfan]

Good info Gerry, Thanks!

[reefsquater]

Anyone else here planning on sending their Avet to Gerry for upgrades?

[Sails and Tales]

Gerry, I came across this thread while doing a search for Avet drag updates. Did the cam and washer install work for you? Would just the washers do the trick or is the cam a must?

I purchased 4 Avet LX6.0 for sailfishing and the drag curve is unusable for my purposes.

Thanks.

[Gerry Zagorski]

Gerry, I came across this thread while doing a search for Avet drag updates. Did the cam and washer install work for you? Would just the washers do the trick or is the cam a must?

I purchased 4 Avet LX6.0 for sailfishing and the drag curve is unusable for my purposes.

Thanks.

not 100% sure Sails.... I know the cam itself did not give me what I wanted. Only thing it did was remove the click notch from free to bait setting so now there is no bait setting and the drag still ramps up much too fast... I never did order the washers so not sure if it works but was told by Avet support you needed both so it does not ramp up too fast.

[MrAC1980]

Gerry maybe I'll load up one of SX's with the extra belvilles and bring it with me to the Xmas party and you can bring the cam and we can match them up and try it...?
I actually have 3 SX's on my workbench now, maybe I'll give this a try tonight with the stock cam and see if there is any diff.

[Gerry Zagorski]

That would be great Ant.... Now if I can just remember which SX I put the cam in... Sucks getting old :rolleyes:

[MrAC1980]

Haha well that i can't help with! What I can tell you is that I tried the different belleville's and it does make a slight difference. Def don't put three sets as it pushes the spool too far out of position that can be seen in the below pic. I think without the cam it won't do exactly what I think you're trying to (a livelining setting). The right setting is right above the first check and you can't really get it to stay there. On my next Avet order maybe I'll just grab one and give it a shot and report back, unless Gerry you can get your memory back! :rolleyes::D:rolleyes:

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p279/mrac6969/20141103_213937.jpg

[Gerry Zagorski]

Should be easy for me to tell which reel has the cam Ant. Once I winter store the boat and get all my gear off, I will make sure and find the reel with the cam and we can screw around with it.

If we could get it to work right that would be sweet... It would be great to have some sort of line out adjustment for applications like dead stick drifting Fluke and live lining Striper. I'm also thinking we'd need to do some field testing on some Florida Sailfish with Sails and Tails just to be sure we have it right. It's a dirty job but hey......Someone has to do it ;)

[Sails and Tales]

Ok thanks Gerry. I'll call them to figure out if I can get by with just the washers. I'd love to keep the bait setting if possible since I do a lot of kite fishing with very light drag however if I need to lose it to get the drags right so be it.

As for the field testing, we're just starting to get into sailfish season...

[Gerry Zagorski]

The guy in customer service is great. Let me know what you find out Sails. I was told you needed both the cam and the washers and you have to remove the Pusher Bushing you can see in the schematic above in my earlier post.

I'm likey to be headed down to Port Saint Lucie in January to visit some family. Is that a good time for sailfishing?

[Gerry Zagorski]

Haha well that i can't help with! What I can tell you is that I tried the different belleville's and it does make a slight difference. Def don't put three sets as it pushes the spool too far out of position that can be seen in the below pic. I think without the cam it won't do exactly what I think you're trying to (a livelining setting). The right setting is right above the first check and you can't really get it to stay there. On my next Avet order maybe I'll just grab one and give it a shot and report back, unless Gerry you can get your memory back! :rolleyes::D:rolleyes:

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p279/mrac6969/20141103_213937.jpg

Ant - did you remove the Pusher Bushing or leave it in? It's my understanding that it makes the space needed for the additional washers.

[MrAC1980]

I removed it... I put it back to factory setting but will bring it setup again to the Xmas party.