Spinning reel maintenance

[dsw1204]

I am in my third year of fishing and I am in need of maintaining my Pfleuger Supreme XT spinning reel.  At the end of my first year of fishing, my Supreme XT broke and I got a new one from Pflueger.  Now, my current Supreme XT is making some squeaking noises while retrieving.  So, I started looking into some lube and oil packages.  I have found I can just purchase the oil, or just purchase the lube (sometimes called grease).  I, also, found some packages that have both the oil and the lube, but also found packages with oil, lube and a cleaner.  Then, I found a package with all three PLUS a bearing lube.

 

Now, I am very confused.  

 

Can someone recommend to me what I should purchase.   I have watched a number of YouTube videos about reel maintenance.  Some pretty simple.  Some, a little more complicated in the maintenance.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[MN Fisher]

Clean everything

Grease the gears

Oil the bearings

 

Don't use too much grease/oil, doesn't take much

 

This from a guy who's been using Pflueger Reels for 40+ years

[GaryH]

Give DVT a call. There a sponsor to the right of your screen. I’m sure they can help.

[jimmyjoe]

   I always do maintenance on my spinning reels myself ........ NOT!  ? 

   I'll grease and oil baitcasters, but the spinning reels I will send in to be professionally done. (This doesn't include oiling the line roller, which I do about every 2 weeks.)  I figure that's the best money I'll ever spend.       jj

[fishhugger]

most people here no a lot more than i about spinning reel maintenance. 

 

but for elementary maintenance, every few trips, here's what i do... .  this is assuming you fish in fresh water. i have 3 in 1 oil, . cleaning - i might use alcohol as a solvent, or just wipe at stuff with a rag. q tips are handy, as are rags. i oil the roller bearing - maybe check it for water first... i think some try wd40, which displaces water.  and where the bail pivots on the reel - two points, i think. i carefully wipe away all excess oil on the roller bearing, to prevent it from getting on the line. 

 

i'm careful to not get my reels coated with sand or grit --- but new reels generally just work great and just need minor maintenance, as above... 

 

for annual maintenance, i suppose i may dissasemble the reel to an extent, and add more oil or grease, penn grease for me, to other areas --- that's another topic, to me. but once you been just taking care of simple stuff, you'll graduate to dissasembly, if that's your thing... 

 

be sure you can get your reel back together... some recommend taking photos of the dissasembly.

[OkobojiEagle]

gears... drag grease

internal bearings... 80wt. outboard lower unit oil

line roller bearing... REM oil (or similar light oil)

 

oe

[TnRiver46]

3 hours ago, MN Fisher said:

Clean everything

Grease the gears

Oil the bearings

 

Don't use too much grease/oil, doesn't take much

 

This from a guy who's been using Pflueger Reels for 40+ years

Ditto. Honestly if you just take it all apart, clean out the black goo, and put it back together, it’s amazing what happens. The varieties of petroleum products you put in there really don’t matter that much. 

[MN Fisher]

9 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

The varieties of petroleum products you put in there really don’t matter that much. 

I just use what I've been using for almost 50 years - Abu Grease and Oil...hasn't failed me yet.

[JustJames]

I agree with @jimmyjoeto seek for professional. It is not a lot more difficult than baitcaster but there are too many tiny parts that can be mess up on spinning compare to pretty straightforward baitcaster. If this your only reel and if you never open one I suggest search for local service, ask tackle store.

The basic maintenance that you should do is oil the roller bearing and clean/grease drag stacks . Alll other bearing plus gear internal pretty much used grease or heavy weight oil.

Any reels oil should work but I prefer cal drag or Shimano star drag which be used for both drag stack and gears.

 

 

[J Francho]

This is a really good guide put out by Shimano:

https://fish.shimano.com/content/dam/shimanosnaffish/pdf/Spinning Reels maint.pdf

[volzfan59]

I've used Abu Garcia oil, Quantum and Bass Pro Shops reel oil and lube in the past with excellent results from each. Two years ago I found Lucas reel oil and lube. As I use Lucas products in my car, truck, boat and guns, I gave it a shot. I'm really impressed so far. I service all of my reels myself, but if a real issue ever came up I'd send it out for service.

[WRB]

2 hours ago, J Francho said:

This is a really good guide put out by Shimano:

https://fish.shimano.com/content/dam/shimanosnaffish/pdf/Spinning Reels maint.pdf

I  haven’t gone any further for cleaning and maintenance on my spinning reels for decades then shown above. Perfect!

Tom 

[Bass Junke]

https://www.bassresource.com/fishing/supertune-baitcaster.html

 

The title of this article is "how to make your bait caster fly." May not be totally appropriate to what you are asking but it was written by one of our members and he mentions specific brands of oil and grease. It is a good read and offers a lot of good advise. It is the blueprint I used to break down, clean, lube and re-assemble both my bait casters and spinning reels. 

[Delaware Valley Tackle]

14 hours ago, OkobojiEagle said:

gears... drag grease

internal bearings... 80wt. outboard lower unit oil

line roller bearing... REM oil (or similar light oil)

 

oe

This is good advice. I’ll add to be very careful with spinning reel ARs. They typically not self contained and can fall apart upon removal. 

[redmeansdistortion]

There are many ways to skin a cat.  My way with spinning reels, ISO 320 oil for the bearings and sliding parts, ISO 10 oil on the line roller, and a NLGI 2 marine grease for the gears.  

[dsw1204]

Okay, guys.  Thanks for all the input.  I think I will get the Ardent Reel Butter Grease, the Ardent Reel Butter Oil, and the Ardent Reel Butter Bearing Lube.

 

I am going to start off just doing the basic lube job on my reel.  Is everything I mentioned above sufficient to do the job?  Or, is the bearing lube not required for the basic lube job?

[J Francho]

I'd avoid Ardent and Quantum Hot Sauce lines at all costs. They don't hold up. Pretty much anything else recommended in this thread and you can't go wrong. 

[throttleplate]

i tore down my pfleuger supreme and cleaned every part using 409 spray, a rag, toothpicks to get grease out of the corners and q-tips.

 

I only tore it down all the way because it gets dunked in the lake at least 1 time every outing as i wader fish and it started to consistantly have a spot where the worm gear and main gear was hanging up making it hard to reel.

 

The abuse i put this reel through hauling fish out of the weeds i for sure thought it had damaged gears but all looked like brand new.

After cleaning it up inside i used REM oil by putting a few drops on the sealed bearings side covers so the oil would get inside of the sealed bearings.

Then i used Quantum Hot Sauce fishing reel grease for all the internal gears and moving parts. I did not slabber grease onto the sealed bearings, i kept them clean on the outside.

I also didnt pack the insides with grease, just used enough to get a good thick coating on the gears and sliding parts.

 

The cleaning solved the sticking gear problem and after eyeballing the gears showig no wear i will continue to buy pfleuger $100.00 reels.

If they remove the AR which they have on the new reels that they are advertising i will not buy them so i will need to make a product change if i ever need another reel.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Fishing-Provides-Long-Lasting-Lubrication/dp/B07YFDZV3P?th=1

 

 

[ike8120]

I started using ReelX oil and grease. 

[J Francho]

7 hours ago, ike8120 said:

I started using ReelX oil and grease. 

Corrosion Tech makes some good oils. I like ReelX specifically for the line roller. In a pinch, it'll often free up a toasted bearing long enough until you order a replacement. I've never tried their grease. 

[Brian14]

I like to clean up old reels and get them serviceable again, baitcasters, spinning and fly reels. After a good cleaning  I use ReelX oil, Penn grease and Cal’s drag grease where necessary.  All highly recommended, easily attainable,  inexpensive and work well.

 

 I will also use the small bottles of manufacturers oil for reels if supplied.

[TnRiver46]

20 hours ago, throttleplate said:

i tore down my pfleuger supreme and cleaned every part using 409 spray, a rag, toothpicks to get grease out of the corners and q-tips.

 

I only tore it down all the way because it gets dunked in the lake at least 1 time every outing as i wader fish and it started to consistantly have a spot where the worm gear and main gear was hanging up making it hard to reel.

 

The abuse i put this reel through hauling fish out of the weeds i for sure thought it had damaged gears but all looked like brand new.

After cleaning it up inside i used REM oil by putting a few drops on the sealed bearings side covers so the oil would get inside of the sealed bearings.

Then i used Quantum Hot Sauce fishing reel grease for all the internal gears and moving parts. I did not slabber grease onto the sealed bearings, i kept them clean on the outside.

I also didnt pack the insides with grease, just used enough to get a good thick coating on the gears and sliding parts.

 

The cleaning solved the sticking gear problem and after eyeballing the gears showig no wear i will continue to buy pfleuger $100.00 reels.

If they remove the AR which they have on the new reels that they are advertising i will not buy them so i will need to make a product change if i ever need another reel.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Fishing-Provides-Long-Lasting-Lubrication/dp/B07YFDZV3P?th=1

 

 

Wading gets mine all gooped up too 

[fishhugger]

i was working on an old zebco spinner. i disassembled and cleaned the various parts, but the central shaft was slightly sticky or noisy,.... i didn't want to take the reel apart more to extricate the shaft from the rotor... a friend suggested wd40, which has slight solvent properties. i tried it. problem solved! i imagine i oiled the shaft after that, and lubed and reassembled the parts i'd removed..

 

but overall, i just try to take care of my reels. i'm not a dunker, and to maintain them i take them apart only so far as i need to... sort of like gypsy rose lee? u no - take off a little here, a little there, until everything seems cool. then cover it all up again. 

 

well, that's how i do it....lol, hopefully.

[Mobasser]

On 9/10/2021 at 7:57 PM, J Francho said:

I'd avoid Ardent and Quantum Hot Sauce lines at all costs. They don't hold up. Pretty much anything else recommended in this thread and you can't go wrong. 

J Francho, have you had poor results with Ardent lubes?.And a second question, have you tried any of the Lucas products?

[Jig Man]

47 minutes ago, Mobasser said:

J Francho, have you had poor results with Ardent lubes?.And a second question, have you tried any of the Lucas products?

I have been using the yellow Ardent reel butter on gears for years.  Shimano is the only oil that I use.