Recently, I tuned up a friend's 6500C..he'd
addidently left the star drag fully engaged for about two years..his trouble was zero drag, with a horrible metal to metal feel and sound. I had to pry out the drag washers, they were frozen that hard to the gear. I then put some silicone bicycle grease (non-toxic) on the washers, inspected everything else and re-assembled. The drag was hard, smooth, and silky throughout the range from weak to strong..after the silicone. He liked it. I did too.. Views....? Right? Wrong? Thanks. Ken

Abu changes the washer design about three times a year it seems ... one reason why I've run more shimanos in recent years ... good or bad depends upon the washers that were in there, some work great that way ... others might for a little while, but will soon have problems. Keep your fingers crossed.

I have a bunch of 5500's, and I use what sounds like the same stuff on them. I think it's called Tri-Flow, or something like that. It works pretty well, and I've yet to run into problems with it on my drag washers, or any other parts, for that matter.
Maybe I've been lucky so far, but it seems to work for me.

Fish on...
Todd.