Century 100 Drag

[salmonfishing]

A few months back I purchased a decent Model 100. When I opened it I was surprised to find it had a cream colored nylon line spool rather than a metal one. I inquired of Huckster37 (Dennis) who is very knowledgeable on Johnson reels if he could shed some light on that spool. He advised that apparently Johnson had problems with the metal spool and the drag system. So they started using some black and some cream colored nylon spools. Here is some info from Chad B. that Dennis sent to me talking about that.

"Here is an exert from the link below, this is comment #5 in the post.

Chad B.

Ron, Jim, Paul, there's a reason that Johnson started using plastic drag plates in those old 100's years ago. An old timer that had fished with these for years told had told me this. If you look at your reel Ron there are no drag washers in that reel. Your drag is the spool and dial plate. When you go to lift the drag plate to adjust the arrow dial, (0 to 6) more pressure was put on the spool for tighter drag, back it off less pressure is put on the spool. Too many of these Johnson 100's met their maker after so many years, The spool would cut through the drag plate. Therefore plastic spools where added after so many years to preserve the drag plates from being worn out prematurely. This was done well into the 60's and 70's I was told, well after the reel had been out of production, the predecessor to the 100A starting in 1956, which then ran the heavy wide white drag ring in the center of the spool with a drag bar actuator. The 100 Johnson was only made 1 year, that was 1955. Still a good ole durable reel by any means.

Here is the entire post with all the comments

http://www.fishingtalks.com/johnson-100-demo-with-plastic-spool-58255.html#65607"

Thanks for sending to me Dennis!The first two pics below show the nylon line spool.


So after seeing this I decided to look at the drag a little closer. Here are some thoughts I have (right or wrong) about what I see. First as 100 owners know, the drag screw sits inside the reel rather than outside. If you look closely you will see Johnson on the main frame casting included a rectangular tab that is positioned on the frame back and right next to the hexagonal headed drag screw and at the junction of where the frame for the side plates meets the round spool  frame backside. It happens to be the same length as one of the hexagonal drag screw sides. I think this tab serves two purposes. First to prevent the drag screw from turning when you move the top drag indicator from 1 to 6. I also think it was engineered to prevent you from over tightening the drag screw. To get mine apart, I had to remove the line spool and push down on the top outside dial to get the screw head to clear the tab so I could unscrew it. If you try and tighten the screw too much, you more than likely will damage the tab and/or the hexagonal drag screw head which appears to be brass. I have included 4 pictures below to point out my thoughts. The first shows the screw head in relationship to the frame tab with the arrow in the #1 position. The next shows the relationship in #6 position. While hard to see in the pic, the screw head is slightly lower than the tab in position #6 and thus held in place so as not to turn when you tightened the drag. The next pictures show how far above the arrow the screw threads protrude first in position #1 and then in position #6. So to me, it seems as though this drag wasn't meant to be adjusted beyond how it was engineered. But obviously Johnson changed that with later Century reels to make them adjustable.

[Skip Smith]

Good analysis of the Century 100 drag system, Chuck!

[Huckster37]

This is great Chuck, the first one of these I tried to take apart I struggled to get that screw out and I did damage the screw head. After that when I cleaned one of these reels I left drag plate attached and cleaned the reel as best I could. Now with this new information next time I should be able to get this reel apart without damaging the screw head. I'll let you know when I get around to cleaning one of these reels again.

[salmonfishing]

Thanks Skip and Dennis. Like I mentioned, I am not sure if I am right or wrong but figure I might be pretty close. One of the enjoyments for me in collecting these old reels is closely looking at them, seeing how they work or how I think they were suppose to work, and how Johnson made changes from model to model. And this site has provided great insight for me from experts in these reels like you two and some others.

[Skip Smith]

Ehhhh, not sure i belong in the "expert" category, Chuck, thanks anyway.  I tend to favor the Century 100B and have more experience with that model than the earlier ones.  I'm always excited to learn things about the Johnson line of reels in any model.

[GaryWB]

Good you guys discussed this.  I acquired a Century 100 some time back and am just now taking it apart, inspecting and cleaning it.  Mine has the black nylon spool.

I got lucky with this reel.  Got the box and paperwork with it also.

Have a great day
Gary

[TIMMY]

all 3 of my century 100's have a metal spool. if i remember correctly, i was unhappy with the drag performance i one of them. i worked with it for quite awhile trying to get it adjusted just right. the discussion started over on FT.com when i found one with a plastic spool and had never seen one that did not have a metal spool and thought it was incorrect. even gene who has had hundreds of 100's apart had never seen one with a plastic spool. thankfully chad had the answer. the plastic spools were sold later as replacements. metal against metal metal just does not produce the smoothest drag. but I love the 100...

[GaryWB]

Chuck,

  So did you guys swap the nylon spools for metal ones when you could find one?


Thanks
Gary

[salmonfishing]

Gary, I did not. As discussed in previous comments, metal spools just don't work that well in the 100 for me anyway. We know that historically nylon or plastic spools were an upgrade to the reel so that is what I prefer on mine. Makes the drag work much better and doesn't wear the metal parts. But you don't see them that often.
Chuck

[GaryWB]

Guess I missed that.  Sorry for the repeat.

This one I'm just going to clean up and put away.

Have a good evening

Gary

[Huckster37]

If your not planning on fishing with your 100, you might wanna keep the metal spool on the reel. If our guess is right, that would be the earliest original equipment. Of course the plastic spools are hard to come by, so you may not have a choice anyway. I have 7 of these reels only 2 have the plastic spool.

[GaryWB]

The 100 I picked up has a black nylon spool.  I don't have a metal spool for that reel.  So I just cleaned everything up and put it away.
I will probably only use a Century 40th Anniversary for fishing.  That because they are the latest in the production.  I have several but diverted a couple with front cover scratches for field use.  All the reels that I have and are in great or better shape I'm not going to fish with.
I also have a Citation 110B that isn't pristine.  Because the handle can be reversed and has a larger spool, I'll put that one  on a reel too.

Gary

[salmonfishing]

I have one with a white spool and one with a black spool. I wonder if both of those colors were typical of the replacement spools?
Chuck

[GaryWB]

2nd question, topic for 2021

Anyone worked on a Century 100 and had the drag screw unscrew from the pointer when used.
I have one that persists until the screw backs out of the pointer and the drag protocol crashes.

I have seen the flat on the frame that I guess is supposed to keep the nut from turning.  But the several 100's I have that boss, or flat is worn and does nothing to keep the nut from turning.

I have one cure I may put to the test, but wondered what you guys thought

Gary

[Skip Smith]

Wow, Gary, I've worked on Century 100's (mostly 100B) since the late 1980's, and you have a problem I've never encountered.  The Century drag system is a bit tedious to adjust, especially if the screw isn't slotted, but I've never had the screw back clear out of the pointer in normal use.  Man, I'm at a loss.  Sorry.