Studio Ocean Mark Drag System Rebuild - Better than Shimano Stella drag system

[Marc Vandaele]

thanks Andy,and all the others for this great and helpfull site full of information
Marc

[Mark Harris]

I meant to add before... at this VERY premium price, the stingy gits at SOM should at least provide a spool case!  Premium manufacturers who supply great product with crappy packaging irritate me. Ripple Fisher also take note.   

[Mark Harris]

Hmmm..... here's an interesting one.

I have just received my 2nd SOM No Limits 16000 spool and there is a different set up - no screws in the "northbridge" ring.  What do you make of that Enoch (and others)?

Have not disassembled this one yet.. literally it has just arrived on my desk.

[Andy Rowe]

Mark, that blue color looks close to the blue on the non 'no-limits' spool....?

You definitely have the no-limits version right, I am expecting some new ones tomorrow so I'll be able to check mine as well.

Hmmm..... here's an interesting one.

I have just received my 2nd SOM No Limits 16000 spool and there is a different set up - no screws in the "northbridge" ring.  What do you make of that Enoch (and others)?

Have not disassembled this one yet.. literally it has just arrived on my desk.

[Les Maunder]

Mark

My recently arrived  SOM NL spool was the same - it screws off anti clockwise. Hand tension was sufficient to undo it.
A little trick when reassembling after a light CAL  grease is the assemble the washers in the northbridge ring " upside down" and re assemble with the spool on top and the ring underneath - be careful not to crush the washers without centreing them.


Cheers

Les

[Mark Harris]

This is definitely a No Limits spool Andy..... Identical to the older one in all respects bar those screws, and with all the right packaging.  It is "new stock" which has just arrived at the tackle dealer. We might have ordered from the same place. In any case I would be very interested to know if your new one has the same difference. 

[Mark Harris]

Gotcha Les and thanks very much for that. And for the little tip about the washer stack.

I guess SOM regard this as a design improvement. 

[Andy Rowe]

This is definitely a No Limits spool Andy..... Identical to the older one in all respects bar those screws, and with all the right packaging.  It is "new stock" which has just arrived at the tackle dealer. We might have ordered from the same place. In any case I would be very interested to know if your new one has the same difference.

Mark, Just got mine, yes the new version with no screws! got one off by hand the other will require abit more work.

[Mark Harris]

Good to hear Andy. Mine took some loosening first time but I just about managed it by hand by gripping through a cotton cloth.

I must say that one twist by hand is definitely a design improvement on removing those screws.

[Andy Rowe]

Probably just a 'one off' occurrence, but i was servicing the drag stack on one of my (yet to be used) SOM 16k NL spools last night and found 4 or 5 small sharp metal shavings between metal and carbontex washers and also in the bottom of the drag housing. It looks like they were left in from the spool machining process. A slight error in QA/QC on this spool only, none of the others I own have this problem.

I would hate to see what these shavings would have done to the drag stack under heavy drag and a big fish. Apart from that the spool is a very cool piece of design innovation as Enoch originally stated.

[Brandon Khoo]

On our trip to Bugatti Reef last month, a couple of guys found that their SOM NL spools would only wind down to about 8kg of drag. I don't think anyone actually ended up taking their drags apart but clearly, something went wrong with them. I wonder whether this might hv been caused by water getting into he drag system.

[Les Maunder]

Hi Brandon

My last SOM NL 16000 delivered was missing the teflon washer from under the Northbridge Ring (image 10 in Enoch's original post). This would decrease the amount of pressure that could be applied to the drag through the drag knob.

I replaced the teflon washer with a similar thickness carbon washer and all has been well.


Cheers


Les