If you read my previous post you know that we went fishing the other day. Well last time we went fishing, back in the fall, I noticed there was a problem with my fishing reel. When I tried to cast it wouldn’t spin smoothly and there was a lot of friction. I knew that my reel would need to be disassembled cleaned, re-lubed, and put back together. When I heard that we would be going fishing the other day, I went and got my reel out of the boat to get ‘er fixed up for casting.
After getting my Abu Garcia Silver Max reel inside, I laid out a towel for dissasembly. I like to work on a nice folded white towel when dismantling something like a fishing reel. The thickness and friction of a towel keeps small parts from rolling around and it also makes it much easier to see small parts against a white background. To dismantle the fishing reel I started by taking apart the crank assembly and laying it out carefully. Before I could get into the innards of the reel, I had to grab the side of the reel that does not have the crank and rotate it downwards about 15 degrees. This side then pulls off and exposes a hidden screw that removes the crank side of the reel.
After exposing the inner workings of the reel, I began cleaning off the old grease residue. The old gunky grease had a green-ish color. It was apparent that there wasn’t too much grease in the reel. Most of the moving parts didn’t even have grease on them anymore which isn’t good at all. Using denatured alcohol I cleaned off what remained of the old grease. I cleaned the gears, bearings on both sides of the reel, the shaft that the fishing line guide rides on, and everything else with the alcohol. When everything was rid of its old lubricant I began adding fresh lube.
I applied thin viscosity oil to all the bearings so it would get down in them real nice and I also applied the oil to the fishing line guide shaft gear. I then used white lithium grease on pretty much all other moving parts of the inside of the reel. I was careful to not over grease it, but still have a good amount. If you look at the picture you will see that there are just a few dabs of grease on the main gear. This is because it will all spread around once I start turning the crank after reassembly. And after re-lubing, I reassembled the reel.
I used the reel fishing Friday and it was great! I couldn’t believe how much smoother it was. When I used it in my bedroom to put on new line I didn’t notice a huge difference, but I could tell a great difference out on the lake when I cast. I could cast quite a ways farther than I had been able to the last few times I had been fishing!
WHat grease did you use??