Cleaning the inside of a reel

[The Rooster]

What cleaners or soap do you recommend to degrease the inside parts of a reel before relubing it again??  I normally just use dish soap but I recently heard that might be too harsh.  

[bilgerat]

Simple Green has worked well for me. It won't damage plastics either, plus it's biodegradeble

[J Francho]

Simple Green for just about everything.  Naphtha for the tough stuff, but be careful, its flammable and has nasty fumes.  You need to find a suitable place to dispose of it as well.  DO NOT simply pour solvents down the drain.

[.RM.]

Been doing this for well over 20 years now, started with bio soaps and learned early they really don't work. So I personally recommended for novice's, ..Reel Scrubber from Birchwood Casey®

Don't like using soaps inside of the reels, it takes more work to get it out of the reel and get the reel dry. Plus I haven't seen any of the soaps actually break down the gear grease without the use of very hot water...As far a Naphtha (lighter fluid) for the tough stuff, that is a Cancer causing agent, very flammable, and will ruin any plastic/nylon part it comes in contact with.

Good luck inside your reel/s...

[J Francho]

That synthetic looks pretty good.  Thanks, I'll be trying it out on the next batch.

[lubina]

What cleaners or soap do you recommend to degrease the inside parts of a reel before relubing it again?? I normally just use dish soap but I recently heard that might be too harsh.

Simple Green diluted 1:10 for everything but bearings. I clean then with industrial acetone, nafta and pure alcohol work well too.

[The Rooster]

Why not the bearings??

And does anyone here disassemble the clutch bearing to clean it out as well??  It will just come apart if you pull the metal sleeve out of the center of it but I've always been afraid to remove it, afraid I'd ruin it and not reassemble it right or lose a part of it.  

[J Francho]

Do you mean the roller bearing?  Repacking it correctly is not for the beginner.

[plastic ninja]

I can work on cars, build houses from the slab up, and many other things. I will never try to work on a fishing reel, especially handle side, I man enough to admit I made that mistake once. My advice would be to take your reels to a tackle shop. It's much cheaper than you think, I get mine done every six months with five reels for less than forty bucks.

[The Rooster]

Do you mean the roller bearing? Repacking it correctly is not for the beginner.

Aaaahh....................I thought not.  

I guess it won't hurt it too much if I just skip it then, like I always do??  I just add oil to it and that's about all.  Mainly I go in to clean out dirt from the gears and apply new gear grease.  I normally don't do that until I begin to feel the gears when I crank it and then I know it's time.  In the past I've never had a problem with the roller bearing not lasting on any reels I've owned.  Some of them I used for nearly 10 years, taking it apart yearly to do just what I know how to only, but not the roller bearing.  I guess "if it ain't broke..................leave it the heck alone".   ;D

[J Francho]

The roller bearing gets packed with grease.  Unless its fouled, just leave it alone.  If it needs service, take it to a pro.

[.RM.]

The Rooster,

And does anyone here disassemble the clutch bearing to clean it out as well??

Yes every reel that comes to my bench gets the one way (if it has one) cleaned and re-lubed. But it isn't repacked, it is lubed with a cotton swap wetted with bearing oil. We found out that adding grease to the one way bearing (on SP and BC reels) that might be fished in colder weather could and does get to thick to allow the pins to work properly in the housing, and causes the AR to fail intermittently. When we started lubricating the oneway pack with oil instead, this issue stopped.

BTW before you jump on me about this not being so, we checked with all of the manufacturers we service and they all agreed with our findings. So take this as you will, but every reel we work has had this done and I don't hear anything from the clients as to AR failures.

Just my .02¢ from the bench....

Tight Lines!!!!!

[The Rooster]

I trust anything you tell me about reels to be solid info.  I found that out too a long time ago by putting too much grease on the clutch bearing on a Garcia Cardinal spinning reel.  It sometimes wouldn't catch on the reverse.  I thought that might be what was happening but all I did was wipe off as much as I could and then added oil in an attempt to thin it out some cause I didn't want to take it completely apart, I was afraid I would ruin it.  The oil seemed to help some and I used it for 10 years before giving it away, still in working condition too.  It never was completely rock solid again though, it would rotate in reverse about 1/4 inch before it caught.  So it makes sense what you are saying here, that must have been what happened to it.  

[J Francho]

BTW before you jump on me about this not being so, we checked with all of the manufacturers we service and they all agreed with our findings. So take this as you will, but every reel we work has had this done and I don't hear anything from the clients as to AR failures.

No jumping here.  Both my winter steelhead (spinning and a round BC) reels are maintained this way.  never had to go this route with my bass equipment though.  I found the 1-way would get "soupy" in really cold weather and tried oil, and it worked.  Glad to hear that OEM says its OK.  I'm going to have to give this a test.  I personally feel that grease is a dirt magnet, and sometimes does more harm than good, so less of it has to be better, as long as weardown isn't an issue.  Thanks - two good tips in a few days.  

[lubina]

Why not the bearings??

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Take longer