Another reel maintenance question.

[walkeraviator]

There you are.. you got the reel disassembled and clean. Now where do you place grease and where to you place oil, and how much of each?

Im a do it yourself kind a guy. No ultra sonic parts cleaners. is the ardent parts cleaner a good buy? i usually just use a toothbrush dry to get out the graphite lube and dirt. then a rag to remove the grease and regrease the big gears. but i am sure i can do more if i had some advise on how to start. what tools does a man need to completely disassemble one?

[Ryne]

Im no expert. But i just take pictures as i take apart the reel. Then i fill up a bowl with hot water and put Simple Green in it. Then i place all the parts in the hot water and SG. I let that sit for 20 min or so and then brush and rinse all parts. For this i use a spaghetti strainer so i dont drop anything down the sink. Then i just apply a small amount of grease to all gears and apply a small amount of oil to all parts that have some sort of friction. Iv never had a problem doing it this way. I never knew where to put grease and oil. I asked someone and they told me,"anywhere theres teeth, put grease."

[Kicksomebass]

never done it myself.. but i would just say, if it moves, grease/oil it

[Tavery5]

Walker, I can give you my take on what to grease and oil. The palm side plate bearing put a drop of good bearing oil on it, the bearing on the spool behind the retaining pin needs a drop of oil also. You can use either grease or oil to lube the worm shaft, grease tends to hold on to debris a little more than oil, but oil is thinner and in my opinion, makes the reel a little louder and will need to be added occasionally. The bearings on the ends of the worm gear, if you have any can be greased, they don't effect casting, and grease will make them smooth on the retrieve side of things. The bearing under the main shaft can also be greased, it is also on the retrieve side. I usually lightly grease the the idler gear teeth and the main and pinion gear teeth. The bearing under the tension cap, needs a drop of good oil on it. The bearings in the handle can use a drop of oil also. If you are working with a Shimano and have the frame mounted bearing, you can use grease on it as well, it does not come into play during casting. This is a rough description of what I oil and grease, and I am sure many others have their own methods. Hope it helps.

[pro reel]

the tools you will need to take it apart are a good small screwdriver set. A 10 mm wrench or nut driver. Some reels use a few other sized wrenchs. A good needle pick like the dentist uses is a good tool to pop loose the octo clips the hold most bearings. Use a small flat screwdriver to pop loose the e clips on the worm gear and a few other places. For most reels, you won't need to remove the plastic clutch parts and springs. Those can be tough to get back. Just loosen the screws a bit and lift it with a screw driver to rinse some cleaner in it and then when it's clean and dry, squirt some oil in it. The best thing you can do for most reels is to get the bearings clean. Most never actually get them clean even when they think they did. Soaking will not do it. Without a US cleaner the only way to do it to spray brake cleaner or carb cleaner through it after it has soaked. get them dry and then add one drop of good oil. It's hard to beat yellow label rocket fuel for bearings and clutch parts. I use red label on worm gears because it's thicker. I only grease the teeth of gears and the lever part of the clutch and pinion carrier. I also wipe a coating of grease across all inside areas of side plates and reel frames. Thats a super thin finger wipe of grease to stop corrosion. I also use grease on the sliding part of thum bars. Don't get any grease or oil anywhere close to the spool shaft or inside the pinion gear. There should not be any graphite lube in the reel. I use super lube brand teflon impregnated grease. It's the best.

[walkeraviator]

The extent of my cleaning was to remove the side plates and clean what i could get to... I have never touched teh bearings before. So all those sepcific bearings you discussed is greek to me. This should be interesting to say the least.

[MississippiBoy]

Try this:

http://www.bassfishin.com/bassfishin...ad.php?t=25614

Good luck getting it back together, though...

[mrmuskie5]

No grease! just high end oil. the reel companies just pack them with grease to insure the reel last thru the warrenty period. you will cast way farther with out all the excess grease. you just have to stay on top of your maintenance.

[DVT Mike]

Make sure you have a schematic in front of you. Document your progress with photos and or notes. Have a clean organized work space and plenty of time to complete the project. Remove old lube, especially the first time. It's best to not mix brands and types of lube due to a small chance of incompatability.

[Tavery5]

Originally Posted by mrmuskie5

No grease! just high end oil. the reel companies just pack them with grease to insure the reel last thru the warrenty period. you will cast way farther with out all the excess grease. you just have to stay on top of your maintenance.

Your spool bearings are all that assist in casting in most modern reels, all other bearings and the level wind come into play on the retrieve side. I would agree that you should not pack your bearing full of axle or any other heavy type grease, but high end greases made for fishing reels will give you increased smoothness and you will not find yourself needing to disassemble the reel to put another drop of oil on a dry bearing.