Re-greasing reel gears?

[glendam]

Is it o.k. to use multi-purpose 2-4-c marine lubricant to re-grease reel gears? If not what do you normally use and do you remove as much of the old grease as possible etc...

any comments would be appreciated.

[RobertELee]

Is it OK? Probably. Do I recommend it? No. Go to your nearest tackle shop and ask them for reel grease, they will most likely have a couple different brands and like most everything in this world you get what you pay for. I personally use quantum Hot Sauce on all of my reels and have no complaints. It is best to remove as much of the old grease and oil as possible to get the most life out of your reel. Every winter I take each one of my reels totally apart to clean and lube them, it takes about 2-3 hours depending on the reel. If you don't want to go this route you can simply take the main covers off and wipe off as much grease as you can. Then add new grease to where you removed it from. You can also bring it into some tackle stores and they will clean them for you for $20-$30 bucks a reel. Hope this helps.

[delmuts]

i'm not familiar with that lubricant, so can't answer that part. first though. make certain you have the diagrams for each reel before starting! then lay each pc out on a paper towl in the order that you take them off .( makes it easier to put back together!)i do use a light lithium(sp?) grease on some of the internal gears and slides, but reel ease/hot sauce on the bearings, and other parts.to clean, i use Q-tips to remove the old gunk. ( use them dry for the heavy stuff , and dip them in alcohol to get the rest off)only take a reel down as far as you feel comfortable with. most spinning reels aren't to complicated, but baitcasters are a different subject. go slow, and you should be ok! del

[RK]

Hiya -

Definitely get reel grease. I use Abu Garcia grease on all my reels. Hot Sauce is ok too, but it's a little lighter and can sling off, so you may have to re-apply it more often, plus, from what some Shimano guys have told me, there's something in Hot Sauce that doesn't react well with some of the synthetic parts in Shimano baitcasting reels....but that's second hand.

I disassemble and clean my reels each off season. Lay out some paper towels, and, as another poster said, just lay things out in order as you take them off. If you get stuck, there are lots of places online where you can view reel schematics.

I clean all the old grease an oil out of my reels with paint thinner and an old toothbrush. If you can, pop out the bearings and clean them too (I just swish them around in pain thinner a little), to get all the old oil out. Then, for baitcasting reels, light oil on the bearings, level wind and spool shaft, and light grease on the main gear, pinion gear and levelwind drive gears. That's all there is to it. I can tear down, clean, and re-assemble a round Abu-Garcia in about 45 minutes. Shimanos take a little longer. I don't even try with Penns. Those get shipped off. Learned the hard way that they're over my head...

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[theoilman]

I have talked with several shops that rebuild reels. The viscosity of grease is the # associated with it. Normal 'gun' grease is #2. Larger numbers are thicker/heavier and smaller numbers are lighter. Reel techs prefer the lighter greases - #00 being the preferred viscosity for most. Also you need a grease with top water resistant properties.

The real problem for most, #00 water-resistant grease is actually an industrial product, not packaged in smaller consumer sizes. With AMSOIL, the smallest size is 35 pounds (5-gallon) pail.