Shimano Moocher reel old vs new

[sushieater]

I'm cleaning up gear and wanted to replace the drag washers with the carbontex washers on all of my shimano mooching reels. I wanted to make sure I had them ID'd correctly as the washers are different.

I thought the older reels didn't have the palming ring, but all of mine do.

Newer style 4000

Newer style 2000

Newer Style 4000
I thought this one was interesting. It has the old style drag knob, but the knob says Waterproof drag. It has the newer style paddles. It also has the older style cursive font. Is this just one of the earlier models of the new style?

Older Style 2000

Older style 2000

 

[scott craven]

Looks to me like the top 2 are new style, while the bottom 3 are old style.
the 4000gt all came with paddles, while the 2000gt had the round plastic hdle.

 

[Coyote Spooner]

I’ve had a bunch of these reels, over the years. Great reel for the price. Definitely a step up from the Daiwa M-One reels, IMO. I had a couple of the 4000GT spools fail, while fishing the banks off Barkley sound. Having 280 feet of mono to reel in caused too much stress on the spool. I think putting a Dacron backing might have prevented this? Back when the Shimano repair center was in Delta, it was easy to get them warrantied.

 

[Hardy Guy]

The drag washers will/ can be different sizes so make sure you check. The different drag knobs will work on all versions but the length (or added spacer) may vary. The drag will much improve with greased carbon fiber. The old washers get very sticky and create a jerky drag

 

[sushieater]

Ah, I thought the "waterproof drag" was a selling feature of the new 4000s and the old ones didn't have it. Same with the paddles. Reel #3 is probably an old 4000 then. Thanks!

 

[Adrenafin]

Got replacement drag washers from Pacific net and twine for my older 2000gt.
Works like new now. I like the older 2000 better than the new 4000's. The drag is much better

 

[saanauk]

Probably sound like I am beating a dead horse as I post it all the time but carbon fiber drag washers from Smoothdrag are a game changer for the shimano reels.