I have a Lew's baitcast reel and I can't figure out which way to flip the little switches to turn the brake on and off. It has 4 switches and right now I have 2 switched inwardly and 2 switched outward. I bought it as a combo and it didn't have an owner's manual. I'm a beginner and I think I want to start with all the brakes on.

I suspect pushing them outwards activates the brake since that pushes the spring? Anyone?

That reel has dual brakes...centrifugal and magnetic...in the spool you can click them out to engage them...and you can also dial up the magnetic brake too

Thanks. That's what I was looking for.

Anytime

You should be able to tell if you put all four out and make a few casts and then put all four in and make a few. You should notice a big difference between the two settings.

Another way to look at it is if the brakes are pushed out the spool will spin slower because the brakes are farther out from the center of the spool but when they are in they are closer to center and allow spool to spin faster. Much like if you have a ball attached to a string and swing it around by the end of the string and then take the string and shorten it and spin it around it will spin around faster. Hope that makes sense.

Also on some reels with centrifugal brake the little plastic brake blocks will actually make contact with a drum that is usually in the sideplate of the reel. Also slowing the spool down when you cast.