How To...Clean my reels?

[Bionicman]

Ive been bass fishing for a little over a year and i have a decent # of rods/reels.  I took all the reels off my rods and cleaned all the rods.  My question is how do i clean and lube my reels?  I have 3 baitcast reels and 3 spinning reels, they are as follows:

BPS Crankin Special Baitcast Reel

BPS Bionic Baitcast Reel

BPS Megacast Baitcast Reel

Gander Mountain Guide Series Advantage spinning reel

Gander Mountain Guide series competitor spinning reel

Gander Mountain Guide Series Pro tourney spinning reel

Any help will be GREATLY appreciated!!!!!!

[archer292]

First make sure you have a schematic for each. Get some good oil and grease. Find out if the drag washers need to be greased and what grease you should use for them. Strip the reels down cautiously. Soak the bearings in Ronsonol for say 15 to 30 minutes. Let them air dry. Clean the frame and all other parts with reel cleaner ( I'm sure you'll get recomendations on which one). Then re-oil the bearings with one drop on each, grease the gears, and use a little oil on all other moving parts. The re-oil and greasing while your puttung it back together. Thats how I do it.

[justfishin]

Thats a question for ReelMech, he can certainly give you the correct way to do this job and what to use. As far as the rods go I use Mequires Carnuba car wax on mine with a shamy cloth.

[roadwarrior]

Well, unless you are VERY mechanically inclined, you should NOT open one of your good reels. Start with some junk and see how it goes, first. Otherwise, you will be money ahead sending it to a professional reel specialist. (Usually, house brands have to be serviced by the retailer).

[Guest DavidGreen]

Bionicman,

archer292 is right stating that you should have the schematics for each reel. But however I would never recommend that you place the bearings in lighter fluid, or Acetone. (they both are carcinogenic) and highly flammable. For a cleaning solution I always recommend using a product called Reel Scrubber by Birchwood Casey®, I carry it in my Supply Shop

As far as breaking down the reels go, if you have never done this before you are going to find it frustrating. Mostly because of the small parts involved. Because most service centers won't work on house brand reels (BPS, Cabela's). If you get stuck (lose or break a part) your going to have to goto Outdoor World Rod & Reel Repair for any kind of help.

One way to do this (if your mechanically inclined) is to have a digital camera beside you when you dis-assemble the reel/s taking a shot of each section you are working on. This will give you some idea of the proper orientation for the assembly to have when re-assembling. Also take some tape and number pieces from 1 thru 20 and place them on a table. As you dis-assemble each reel place the part on a number (always starting with number 1), doing this until the reel is dis-assembled.

Clean and dry each part individually and place back on the number it came from. Once you have the reel cleaned and each part dried, lube and re-assemble starting from the last number on the table. There are a lot more tricks to not losing e-clips and tiny springs, but it takes more room than I have here. You can get a book on servicing a baitcaster in my supply shop also, it is illustrated using an accurist cx, but the technique is the same on all baitcasters, only the parts are different.

Also remember this, there are more parts in a spinnning reel than the baitcasting reels. But the same process is used.

If your not mechanically inclined, then I would recommend sending them every season to (Outdoor World Rod & Reel Repair for BPS reels) as for the Cabela's reels I would say back to the retailer.

Hope this helps.

Tight Lines!!!