Recommended Reel Lube

[LEWITH]

Hey guys,

im going to be taking apart my baitcasters soon and have never done it. I'm just gonna take the spoil out and clean it up and relube nothing to in depth. What reel lube do you guys suggest I have 3 Daiwa Tatulas if that makes any difference. 

Thanks

Lew

[cottny27]

Sounds like all you need is oil then.  Maybe lube just for the worm gear.

[LEWITH]

Ok, What oil do you suggest?

Thanks

LEW

[Delaware Valley Tackle]

A light all propose oil is all you need. Remoil, 3in1 or even sewing machine oil will work fine. Use heavier oil on the worm gear in place of grease. Something like gear lube. 

[rippin-lips]

1 hour ago, LEWITH said:

Hey guys,

im going to be taking apart my baitcasters soon and have never done it. I'm just gonna take the spoil out and clean it up and relube nothing to in depth. What reel lube do you guys suggest I have 3 Daiwa Tatulas if that makes any difference. 

Thanks

Lew

Removing only the spool isn't going to allow you to oil anything except the spool bearings. Other than that you'll need to tear it apart to actually service it properly. For the spool bearings the Remington gun oil will be fine. If you do a full service pick up a tube of super lube grease. After you clean everything really well you'll then need to re grease some things.  

[LEWITH]

I don't know how to take it fully apart. Was told you generally don't need to take it fully apart until it's 3-5 years old.  Just clean spool and worm gear area. 

Thanks

LEW

[Delaware Valley Tackle]

It depends on use and conditions. I recommend annual deep cleaning as a starting point and adjust from there. 

[rippin-lips]

18 hours ago, LEWITH said:

I don't know how to take it fully apart. Was told you generally don't need to take it fully apart until it's 3-5 years old.  Just clean spool and worm gear area. 

Thanks

LEW

You can't fully clean the worm gear with it still in the reel. The tube it's inside of gets pretty nasty. You can add some grease to it though but I only add grease after I know it's been cleaned recently. 

[Bass Turd]

There are lots of great tutorials on YouTube on how to service and maintain all kinds of reels. This site also has lots of information. I have no affiliation with it but I have found lots of useful information. www.alantani.com 

[riverbasser]

Don't want to hijack but this question applies to your topic

For a general answer without getting too technical, wouldn't you grease all gears and lube all bearings?

Would mineral spirits work well to clean everything?

[MickD]

Look at your reel's schematic, you can find it on line if you don't have the sheet that came with the reel.  Do you really want to get into taking all that apart and putting it back together?  You don't have to, and I certainly am not going to.  I've used many reels for many years, and except for dunking one for a few days, (I sent that to an expert for major clean and lube) I've serviced only as you suggest, take it down the first level only, lube from there.  Maybe the level wind needs a little cleaning, but don't take a chance on a major dis-assembly.  Light grease for gears, good oil like DVT suggested for everything else.  Not that red stuff-it's inferior in quality, stick with clear oil like DVT suggests.  I add a drop or two of oil to all moving parts, especially the level wind worm, a couple times a year max.  And my reels work fine.  Don't get too obsessive, keep it simple.

[rippin-lips]

53 minutes ago, riverbasser said:

Don't want to hijack but this question applies to your topic

For a general answer without getting too technical, wouldn't you grease all gears and lube all bearings?

Would mineral spirits work well to clean everything?

Simple green works very well to clean the parts. People will have different answers as for what works 'best'. I used to only grease gears and use different weight oils for everything else. I've now switched away from that after some time testing both and some chat time with who most would agree is the best reel tuner around. I grease the main and pinion gear,worm gear, and the frame bearings. The only thing I oil now is the spool bearings,and the AR bearing.  My results are a smoother feeling reel verse the oil. 

[.ghoti.]

11 minutes ago, rippin-lips said:

Simple green works very well to clean the parts. People will have different answers as for what works 'best'. I used to only grease gears and use different weight oils for everything else. I've now switched away from that after some time testing both and some chat time with who most would agree is the best reel tuner around. I grease the main and pinion gear,worm gear, and the frame bearings. The only thing I oil now is the spool bearings,and the AR bearing.  My results are a smoother feeling reel verse the oil. 

Simple Green is all I use these days. Why use something toxic and flammable? Besides the inherent dangers, where do all these chemicals end up? I seriously doubt anybody cleaning their reels disposes of the used chemicals in an environmentally proper way. Simple Green is biodegradable, and does not stink up the joint. Rant over.

I used to grease all bearings, except spool bearings, but no longer do so. I have over thirty reels of my own to service over the winter, plus the reels I do for other people. That's a lot of time. Getting a bearing full of grease clean is very time consuming, and I use an ultrasonic cleaner. I now use 90wt gear oil for all frame and handle bearings. Just as smooth as grease, easier to apply, and a lot easier to get cleaned out than grease.

So, 90wt gear oil for frame and handle bearings.

TSI321 for spool bearings, levelwind gear and pawl, and IAR bearing.

Cal's or Shimano drag grease for drags and gears.

The only exception is for the three spinning reels I use for winter trout fishing. I use Krytox grease for gears and drags in these reels. It's good down to -80 F. A synthetic fluorocarbon grease with PTFE additives. I got a small sample of this from a DuPont rep a few years ago. Had enough to do two reels. I bought more after one trial. I'm thinking about using this grease in all of my own reels. I bought a two ounce tube, and since it takes so little to do a reel, I may have enough to last me forever.

Just my opinions. Feel free to disagree. You won't hurt my feelings.

[Jeff H]

1 hour ago, .ghoti. said:

Simple Green is all I use these days. Why use something toxic and flammable? Besides the inherent dangers, where do all these chemicals end up? I seriously doubt anybody cleaning their reels disposes of the used chemicals in an environmentally proper way. Simple Green is biodegradable, and does not stink up the joint. Rant over.

I used to grease all bearings, except spool bearings, but no longer do so. I have over thirty reels of my own to service over the winter, plus the reels I do for other people. That's a lot of time. Getting a bearing full of grease clean is very time consuming, and I use an ultrasonic cleaner. I now use 90wt gear oil for all frame and handle bearings. Just as smooth as grease, easier to apply, and a lot easier to get cleaned out than grease.

So, 90wt gear oil for frame and handle bearings.

TSI321 for spool bearings, levelwind gear and pawl, and IAR bearing.

Cal's or Shimano drag grease for drags and gears.

The only exception is for the three spinning reels I use for winter trout fishing. I use Krytox grease for gears and drags in these reels. It's good down to -80 F. A synthetic fluorocarbon grease with PTFE additives. I got a small sample of this from a DuPont rep a few years ago. Had enough to do two reels. I bought more after one trial. I'm thinking about using this grease in all of my own reels. I bought a two ounce tube, and since it takes so little to do a reel, I may have enough to last me forever.

Just my opinions. Feel free to disagree. You won't hurt my feelings.

This is how I do mine too.  Light oil for spool and AR bearings, heavy oil for frame bearings and worm gear, grease in the gears.

[cottny27]

2 hours ago, MickD said:

2 hours ago, MickD said:

Look at your reel's schematic, you can find it on line if you don't have the sheet that came with the reel.  Do you really want to get into taking all that apart and putting it back together?  You don't have to, and I certainly am not going to.  I've used many reels for many years, and except for dunking one for a few days, (I sent that to an expert for major clean and lube) I've serviced only as you suggest, take it down the first level only, lube from there.  Maybe the level wind needs a little cleaning, but don't take a chance on a major dis-assembly.  Light grease for gears, good oil like DVT suggested for everything else.  Not that red stuff-it's inferior in quality, stick with clear oil like DVT suggests.  I add a drop or two of oil to all moving parts, especially the level wind worm, a couple times a year max.  And my reels work fine.  Don't get too obsessive, keep it simple.

Look at your reel's schematic, you can find it on line if you don't have the sheet that came with the reel.  Do you really want to get into taking all that apart and putting it back together?  You don't have to, and I certainly am not going to.  I've used many reels for many years, and except for dunking one for a few days, (I sent that to an expert for major clean and lube) I've serviced only as you suggest, take it down the first level only, lube from there.  Maybe the level wind needs a little cleaning, but don't take a chance on a major dis-assembly.  Light grease for gears, good oil like DVT suggested for everything else.  Not that red stuff-it's inferior in quality, stick with clear oil like DVT suggests.  I add a drop or two of oil to all moving parts, especially the level wind worm, a couple times a year max.  And my reels work fine.  Don't get too obsessive, keep it simple.

 

21 hours ago, LEWITH said:

I don't know how to take it fully apart. Was told you generally don't need to take it fully apart until it's 3-5 years old.  Just clean spool and worm gear area. 

Thanks

LEW

If the reels are somewhat new then you'll be fine.  I did just that much for many years and never had a problem.