Yearly tear down maintenance on reels

[ronaultmtd]

I have a bunch of reels disassembled laying on my kitchen table pissing the wife off- piles of old line on the floor where I am replacing the braid after cleaning the spools throughly and a dab of Penn synthetic oil on the shafts- I have a small brush an a bowl of de-greaser that I clean all the lubricants off and wipe dry before a dab of precision reel grease goes on the gears, levers and free spool bars- the bearings get a through degreasing and blow dry with compressed air before I add a drop of synthetic oil- I do this once a year...that time is now- right before fishing season gets underway in a big way-

[Turtle135]

Would you describe the method you use for degreasing the bearings?

[ronaultmtd]

Sure- I soak them in cleaner, take a soft bristle brush and brush them in the liquid cleaning solvent- removing all grease, oil, etc.- take an air nozzle and blow them off holding the parts in a soft lint free cotton rag- when throughly dry I lightly lube them with synthetic oil and wipe off the excess before re-assembling the parts- When the bearing is in the side plate, I take the entire assembly and do the same procedure- that way I am sure all the salt crystals, grit, etc. has been removed-if you are not so inclined to do a full tear down, you can do it the fast way by buying aerosol cans of brake cleaner at an auto parts store and blow the cleaner into the assembly until all the lube is gone and then re-lube the parts

[tufnik]

You do a lot more thorough job on reels than me.

Don't forget your mirage drive. I tore that down and cleaned off all the crude in the rods/shafts using a oiled rag. I then applied lithium grease and silicone lubricant at appropriate places. It's ready to go for another season.

[Redfish12]

I also went through my reels over the winter and did the grease and lube job. One thing I did this year was replace some of the drag washers that were worn down (curado 201 e7 is my most used reel) with greased carbontex drag washers. So far I am very impressed with the increased drag pressure and smoothness. I went ahead and replaced some of the felt washers in the light spinners I use because after the felt washers get wet, they can be pretty sticky.

Servicing your own reels can be fairly easy, just download the schematic, crack a beer (or 4 if you are working on a baitfeeder spinning reel), and get to it.

[Turtle135]

Thanks ronaultmtd!

I had one set of bearings on a baitcaster that did not seem to respond to just soaking in cleaner for whatever reason (wound up replacing them) so I was curious if there were any additional steps anyone was taking with bearings.

[Redfish12]

Whenever I have a problem, I go here first! http://alantani.com/

[Katfish Jones]

Thanks for the tips guys. I just regulary started to clean my reels and it has made quite the difference