In an effort to maintain and better understand my equipment, I took apart my Daiwa Tatula 100HSL baitcaster (it didn't seem as smooth as it had been).

Anyway, now when I put it back together, it will reel relatively smoothly if the drag is very loose, but if I tighten the drag it is difficult to reel (and a portion of the rotation is more difficult than the rest).

Any suggestions as to what boneheaded thing I did might cause that?

Paging Brewer. Clean up on aisle 6.

My guess is that one of the metal washers in the drag stack (all the washers under the star drag) got flipped over? Some of them are concave and have a top/bottom.

http://www.daiwa.com/us/service/manuals/

That seems like a good bet. I'll check that out.

Turns out I did have something flipped the wrong way (among other problems), but it was something that should have been more obvious than a washer. I'm not sure if the reel is better than when I started, but it's not worse, and I'll consider that a success for now.

Thanks!

Hook up to Mr. Big....he'll check out that drag stack.

Alan Tani's website is always worth checking out when a reel question comes up. There's a Daiwa section of the forums and lots of tutorials on servicing reels with pictures along with member questions and comments. Solved a lot of problems for me.

My guess is the washer that has the 2 small ears that fit in the groved drive gear was not locked in. 😝