Stradic CI4

[Juzza]

How much shaft movement are you guys experiencing with these reels. I can move the main shaft in / out of the rotor quite a bit , never noticed it before.

Mate I cracked my two Ci4's yesterday and shimmed the bearings "again" - I brought this up in the post ' Bearing Slop' in the reels section.

I actually shimmed the rotor bearing also and the whole reel package is.. um... F-Loads awesome! Finally - cant believe the amount of work I have invested into these Ci4's to get them where I want them to be - smooth and consistent...

This in a email from Shimano - re: bearing slop in my Ci4's handle and rotor.

"I have not seen this issue with the Stradic CI4 model before."

Aint that just the biggest load of 4 day old email dribble we've ever heard

[Juzza]

The movement I am getting is the worm drive shifting back and forward between the front and rear worm drive bushings. I had a look inside and nothing is missing according to the schematics and the reel is too new to have wear issues. it might just be a characteristic of the reel , might have to go to the shop and compare with another reel to be sure.

That reply from Shimano sounds like too hard basket maybe.

Right'o - now that I can see what your issue is with the reel. Its normal - it seems that the locomotive style shaft oscillation has a little less shaft "up and down" play than the worm driven shaft.

I notice that up and down play on all my Stradic's be it the FJ or the Ci4's which are pretty much the same in distance they move - this because they are the same reels - even with the Sustains and the others higher up the field (they may suffer it also). I think if you were to up spec them to say Sustain bearing count or higher like some do over in the States that may reduce some movement as a total internally with the worm drive coming out of bushings and living in bearings with less overall play (not sure as havent played with higher models to see if bearing count affects the shaft play).

There is no hint of this movement during 'normal' fishing - I have watched the spool like a complete gumby when I noticed that play however cant see any during normal use - its only when you physically grab the spool and pull it up and down you notice it.

[JIM1]

I've converted two FJs with 4 extra bearings in each, overall play wasn't reduced, but the smoothness of the reels was greatly improved

[matt jorg]

I admire your passion for quality and expecting excellence but I think a few of us need to accept the reels for what they are and just fish with them.

'Slop and play' I think is just stuff that is unavoidable at certain price points, tinker away at your reels that is cool but maybe you need to buy a stella fe or exist instead of having 3 or 4 stradics? To get what you're after..
Cut the companies some slack, 99.9% of the population that passionately fish love to use Shimano daiwa etc.
Even a stella fe has handle play though but I'm not putting food wraps in it in a hurry.
Just wanted to contribute a point,
Cheers Matt.

[gozz]

I checked mine and the ci4 had about 4 to 5mm spool play.
Saying that my luvias certate ballistic FI and FJ stradics all had spool play at about 2mm.
My fpluger had the least at about .5 to 1mm.

[gozz]

Originally Posted by JIM1

I've converted two FJs with 4 extra bearings in each, overall play wasn't reduced, but the smoothness of the reels was greatly improved

Where did u put the extra bearings and
Did they just slot in with out to many mods.
Thanks mate.

[Green Hornet]

Originally Posted by gozz

I checked mine and the ci4 had about 4 to 5mm spool play.
Saying that my luvias certate ballistic FI and FJ stradics all had spool play at about 2mm.
My fpluger had the least at about .5 to 1mm.

Really.....4-5mm?
I just checked my 2500, which I bought back in 2010 and it has 2mm at the most.
I've also got a 1000 which is a year older and it has only 1mm.

[Nix88]

Does it really matter if there is a little bit of play.i have a Stradic first model and is a beast and have two ultergras.i gave the ultergras to my cousins who's a engineer and he put in all new bearings and bearings where they had plastic bushes.it made a huge difference.stradics nevertheless are a great real any issues speak to the boys at shimano.great guys will help you out.

[Piranha]

I had to rerplace a couple of worm drives in my stradic 2500 ci4s after 4-6 months use, sold them and switched to daiwa, no more problems

[Nix88]

I wonder if all shimano reels and diawa reels were all still made in Japan if they would have the problems we get with them today.reason is my dad still has the same diawa and shimano reels which are 35 years old.they look like DohDohDohDoh but still going hard.

[gozz]

Originally Posted by Piranha

I had to rerplace a couple of worm drives in my stradic 2500 ci4s after 4-6 months use, sold them and switched to daiwa, no more problems

I wander if your reels had the bearings shimmed would they have had the worm drives damage.
I know mine was very sloppy and heaps of play before I shimmed it.

BTW my second comment was about my reel.

Like I said - I shimmed the outside diameter of my Stradic Ci4's and have noticed a remarkable difference in handle "play" and bearing slop in both the handle and the rotor.

Originally Posted by gozz

I wander if your reels had the bearings shimmed would they have had the worm drives damage.
I know mine was very sloppy and heaps of play before I shimmed it.

Gozz - which type of shim are you using? The circular ones that go over the LH side of the drive shaft?

Just bought a $100 digital vernier caliper yesterday from work to measure a $25 bearing in a $200 reel... Go figure

I am assuming and just got confirmation from Mr Hawk himself - I ran everything by the man to make sure that it was sound and works in theory.

"That's a very good idea. Thanks for sharing your experiment and results. Any slop in bearings actually produces uneven and inconsistent wear, and it's great you're already feeling a difference in smoothness. Enjoy it."

I will strip my Stradic 4000 Ci4 'again' this wednesday and go through the bearings and their body recesses and show the differences in sizes and how bad the tolerances really are!

[tuan]

haha slazmo .. i reckon you should apply for a position @ shimano quality control!

i don't mind a bit of tinkering myself however it is true that these mid level reels are made to a price point so it is what it is, but still .. $200 is quite a bit of cash to pay for slop !