Curt, the drag washers in Shimano reels require Shimano Drag Grease. If your drag is "chugging", most likely you just need to re-grease it. As long as you are there, you might as well replace the drag washers with as many fish as you have on them. They are very inexpensive as mentioned above. Right now I believe they are on back order from Shimano though.
You can buy the Shimano Drag Grease for about $5.00 at Ollie Damon's in Portland. In Washington, a Shimano authorized warranty store should sell it. It alone will most likely cure your problem.
The link below will take you through the maintenance steps. For the bearings I use Boeshield which is a lubricant made for Boeing aircraft. It is awesome at preventing water damage and dries to a non dripping form. For the gears, I use grease called Phill Woods Bicycle grease. It too is water proof. Both can be purchased at bicycle shops. Tri-Flow is the next choice if you can't find Boeshield.
http://www.shimanofishing.com/service/lowtips.htm

[ 01-07-2002: Message edited by: Spooled ]

[ 01-07-2002: Message edited by: Spooled ]