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Reel maintenance and rebuilding - please add to this thread

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4K views 28 replies 14 participants last post by  Bug Guy 
#1 ·
Hey everyone,

It's pre-season, and I'm some people may have reel maintenance on their mind. Was talking with Robalo123 about it and figured I'd start a thread so people with more experience than me could really provide some info. Please add info, links, pics, whatever to thread if you please. Conventional or spinning reels - for trolling or jigging - all brands.

I'll start with some info on conventional reels. That is where most of my limited knowledge lies. What I'm thinking about at this time of year are the following general maintenance tasks which can be done to good reels OR can be done to recondition apparently wore out or busted up reels:

1. Replace old / bad line
2. Replace and/or grease drag washers
3. Grease internal parts as needed
4. Replace dog spring (Penn reels)
5. Look for wear on gears and other parts
6. General rebuilds as needed

My hope is that I only need to do #1, #2, and #3 only (and #4 just because I'm in there and it's easy to do during reassembly on the Penns I have). Luckily for me I fish a friend and mostly abuse his equipment, so I don't generally have much to do each year. Actually most of what I've done lately is reconditioning cheap reels purchased at flea markets.

Here is where I would start: http://alantani.com/ Go to the "Reel Rebuild Tutorials and Questions" section to start, but look through the entire website.

This forum has a bunch of great threads. There are a bunch of "stickies" at the front of each brand's forum which goes over general rebuilds for various reels. My favorites for Penn are:

113/114h senator - short version
330 gti
penn 209, which has the good pictures for how to get the dog spring back in
310 gti

Alan Tani has also posted on TF. Most his posts are in the "Fishing Tackle" forum, but some are in "The Original Board" - aka, Chesapeake Board. Here is a link to "all threads started by alantani" (username).

One favorite (which is also probably on his site, but I just found it on TF first) is: 2/0 penn senator rebuild

Where to order parts? Again, I have limited knowledge, but for Penn Reels, www.pennparts.com aka (http://store.scottsbt.com/Penn-Parts-Home-Page-W7C1.aspx), aka Scott's Bait and Tackle in NJ is where I go.

One other important thing to note for amateur reel fixers like me. It seems easy, and it actually isn't that bad. But it can be time consuming. If you are like me and try and limit my time in the basement/garage/shed/etc. so I can fish more, you may want to check out the people on TF who do this. There are many, and I hope their names are brought up by others. ReelSmith (username) on this board has helped me out a lot. He's given me some pointers and looked at a couple reels for me. Hopefully he'll chime in. But again, there are many local people who will do this for a reasonable price, and I'm sure would be willing to provide some pointers.

Again, everyone please add what you want here. I am by far no expert. Also, if the links don't work, sorry, it's late and I'm not gonna check them.
 
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#2 ·
You missed the most important part....CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN.......old grease holds dirt and gets thick and sticky, it needs to be cleaned off parts and especially out of gear teeth and off of shafts and sliding parts......this is very time consuming......but the result is a reel that works like new.
 
#6 ·
One tip - sorta related : While fishing , keep a few tubes of Penn reel lube on the boat. Only takes a few seconds to lube the handles and the level wind worm gear ( flip reel over to see it ).

A good fresh water bath with soap - then fresh water rinse after each trip goes a long way to keep reels working.
 
#7 ·
Good post been using Alan's site for about 3 years now. I did his tld 25 upgrade and his picture tutorials make it easy. I ordered my upgraded handles and washers from him. I also upgrade my drags to carbon fiber ones and use Cal's drag grease. They are nice and smooth and a cheap investment in my opinion. If you don't have carbon fiber drag washers you should still apply a thin coat of drag grease on the washer so it helps it stay smooth. There are pictures on Alan's website to help show how and if you have questions post them and he will answer them.
 
#9 ·
Hey all, great comments. Like I said, I'm an amateur, so I'm sure I'm missing a ton.

Another tip - if you have a buddy who works on reels, ask them if they'd trade a 6pack for an afternoon of advice. I learned most of what I know from my buddy.
 
#17 ·
There's two things Ralph (Reelsmith ) taught me and that is 1) Do not SPRAY the reels with water! It gets into the reel and causes problems from within. Gently wipe them down with clean fresh water. #2 DO NOT use WD40 on your reels, it is a penetrating solvent that will ruin your drag washers! Use only quality reel oil (Penn is good).
 
#18 · (Edited)
#2 DO NOT use WD40 on your reels, it is a penetrating solvent that will ruin your drag washers).
As with everything in life, moderation is the key. Yes, if you spray ½ a can of WD on the reel I would suspect you'd have problems. A light misting and a subsequent wipe down with a rag afterwards is not going to be harmful your reel. I've seen far more drag stacks contaminated with overzealous oiling of the handle fitting than from the occasional "misting" of WD after a rinsing with freshwater. Even more are contaminated by an overzealous greasing of the internals by the owner.
 
#19 ·
Seahunter....I was not looking for a debate. I only stated what a Professional told me. I have also attended seminars where he also told the audience the same thing. You can do what you want but Ralph is an expert, so I think I'll follow his advice.
Respectfully,
Charlie
 
#20 ·
Consider using Corrosion X instead of WD-40 (Ralph got me started on this stuff and Alan Tani must drink it) to wipe your reels down and lube your level wind worm gear. It is far more superior and longer lasting than WD-40 at preventing corrosion and lubicating. It can be found at your local ACE hardware and I think I saw AllTackle is now carryng it.
 
#22 ·
Reel maintenance is always an interesting topic! Hope all the directions this thread has taken are helpful to Bug Guy, and others.

WD-40 is certainly one of those lasting products with many uses, some well intended ones (according to user input), some myths, and many pros vs. few cons. I have only ever been able to come up with three cons, 1) it smells, 2) it gums up, and 3) too many "magic potion" ideas.

It's that gumming one that tells me not to use it for fishing reel lubrication. An occasional (light) spray and a (thorough) wiping off might be ok, but for my money, it's a penetrating solvent and protectant, not to be used for reel lubrication.

Like already said, anything used in excess on a reel can be more harmful to the workings than helpful, but when it comes to my reels, I keep WD-40 as far away as possible.
 
#23 · (Edited)
"Not so sure about that "grease drag washers" as a blanket statement? "
Lots of arguments and opinions about this topic.
For rebuilding, upgrading and maintaining conventional reels, as mentioned before Alan Tani is the unchallenged Senei (or Yoda) of the topic.

His website is www.alantani.com
Alan writes extremely clearly (and he is an engineer :clapping2:), and does outstanding step-by-step written tutorials with unbelievable close up photographs of how to tear apart, maintain, and upgrade (if desired) conventional reels.

Alan is a firm, unambigious and outspoken advocate of using drag washer grease (not conventional reel or maring grease) on all drag washers: fiber, carbonex, whatever. Here is paragraph on drag grease from his 2009 article on lubricants for reels (http://alantani.com/index.php?topic=50.0);

"Drag Grease - There are currently three drag greases on the market, available from Shimano, Cal Sheets and Xtreme Lubricants. These products are Teflon-based and cost from $25 to 50 per pound. One way to separate these products is by melting temperature. Shimano's drag grease melts at 300 degrees Fahrenheit, Cal's drag grease melts at 500 degrees F, and the Xtreme drag grease melts at 1000 degrees F. Water, of course, boils at 212 degrees F at sea level. Unless you see steam coming from you fishing reel, you are nowhere near the melting temperature for any of these products. Under the heaviest drag settings with several hundred yard runs, there is a phenomenon called "high speed runout." Cal Sheets describes a decrease in drag pressure when a big fish is running long, hard and fast with lower melting temperature Teflon greases. This would not be a concern in the vast majority of situations. The product that I am currently using is the $25 per pound Cal's Drag, although the Shimano and Xtreme products perform equally well in the light tackle applications that I am commonly faced with. "
 
#24 ·
Having worked side-by-side with Engineers for nearly thirty years, saying someone is an "engineer" doesn't hold water with me as much as with others, though I did enjoy the quip about writing and speaking clearly.

Many people who "maintain" fishing reels and provide infrequent, or frequent, remedial drag washer care aren't engineers, but they have enough sense to read the reel and drag washer makers' recommendations for cleaning, lubricating and care, and at times those care instructions differ, albeit if only slightly at times, from what Alan likes to think everyone can abide by.

Thanks for the input, but even with that input, and also the leeway one can gleen from Alan, I'll stand by my "blanket statement" precaution.

Besides, having been "trained" by engineers for all those years, I like to keep fishing fun and simple, rather than too scientific, and/or too full of web searches, only to be told RTFMS.
 
#25 ·
I too have been plagued/cursed/blessed with working with engineers my whole life. I went to an engineering dominated college (RPI), although I was a geology major. Since then I have worked in the field of environmental abatement and regulation...which is dominated (or at least waaay top heavy) with engineers.

I did know one engineer and friend who could genuinely write. He was a cost engineer for EPA and the Public Health Service. In his spare time (back when federal employees allowed to have second jobs) he was the unnamed editorial writer for the main newspaper in Durham, NC (the Herald Sun) and book reviewer for the Raleigh News and Observer. But his real writing passion was history. Bill's book on Bennett Place, a Civil War site in Durham, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize (didn't win, but still...). "Dawn of Peace", the definitive work on Bennett Place, argued that Bennett Place was the place the Civil War ended with the largest troop surrender of the war. Confederate General Joseph Johnston (and 89,270 troops of the Armies of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida) surrendered to Gen. William Sherman. That was 2 weeks after Lee surrendered to Grant and 1 day after Lincoln was assassinated. Sherman's army was on the way back north after sacking Atlanta. The war was over...at least everywhere that had telegraph lines. Tennessee, Texas, and a few places along the Mississippi RIver took a bit longer. News traveled slowly then.
 
#27 ·
BigWillJ - there was a commentary in Saltwater Sportsman a while back about "that guy" who spends all his time maintaining and rebuilding gear and no time fishing. You're statements remind me that there is a fine line between all that we can do and all that we need to do to be successful fisherman with the time we have. Also, as you elude to, much of these suggestions are opinion. I don't think anyone has done a lot of controlled experiments looking at drag washer grease. Thus, we can follow factory guidelines, expert opinion, our own gut feeling, or just randomly guess what would be best. I'm just all about having at hand what info there is available.

Alan Tani has a bunch of articles about how long he can get certain reels to spin in free spool - to me, that's cool, but not something I worry about when getting my gear ready for the season.
 
#28 ·
I hear ya BG, and sounds like you're in a good place!

About that free spool thing. Been there, done that, on the distance casting tournament circuit.....it's of no discernable value on the casting field, or when fishing. Yes, it's cool, and a fun thing to play around with, but you're right to not worry about it.

Catch'em up.
 
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