GREASING REELS

By Paul Nixon

ONE of the phrases I most commonly hear from customers dropping off a reel is: “The bearings and gears are fine, just pack the reel with grease.” While the theory behind that kind of makes sense, there are so many other things that need to be considered before you just throw any old grease inside an expensive piece of equipment hoping that it will just work!

There are many types of lubricants available, and knowing what to put where on or inside a reel is crucial to ensuring it will last and perform at its peak for many seasons. Unfortunately there is no “one size fits all” product that can be used across the board.

Greasing the gears and oiling the bearings is a good starting point. Grease protects the bigger moving parts such as the pinion, main and work gear from wear by providing a barrier which prevents friction. Oil is put inside the bearings and rollerclutches because its much lower viscosity allows the same anti-friction properties while also repelling any moisture.

GREASE

The properties that need to be looked for in a grease are a low viscosity, adherence, high friction resistance, performance under high speed, and heat dissipation. Generally you won’t find these properties in the cheaper and often easily supplied greases. On numerous occasions we open up a reel only to find it has been filled with some gearbox grease which is all over the inside of the reel and has been flung off the actual moving parts where it should be.

OIL The properties needed in an oil to ensure bearings function as required are that the oil is penetrative, has high heat resistance, displaces moisture and, very importantly, prevents corrosion.

DRAG GREASE

With carbon drag washers being in place in most reels these days a high quality grease (in small quantities) also needs to be applied to these.There are currently three drag greases available — Shimano, Cals and Xtreme Lubricants. They are all Teflon based and can only really be separated by their melting temperatures.

There is a phenomenon known as high speed runout where lower temperature Teflon greases show a decrease in drag performance pressure when a big fish makes long, hard, sustained runs under high drag pressure. Under-lubricated drag washers sometimes seize to the spacer washers, and invariably this ends in a fireside story and an unhappy angler.

It’s important to note that most, if not all, reels arrive very under-lubricated direct from manufacture, and are certainly not saltwater ready.

We always suggest that anglers season prep or pre-service a reel straight after buying it. This is not because we want to make a quick buck, but rather because we know a proper service of the reel will ensure the internals are 100% protected from wear, and that the negative effects of saltwater are reduced to an absolute minimum.

Screw ports, line rollers and seals are often the first to pack up if they’re not attended to correctly. A pre-service also gives you peace of mind that internals are correctly in place. A few of us reel techs have opened reels only to find that gasket seals have been pinched or are not aligned, thereby rendering their sealing capability ineffective.

FREQUENCY OF SERVICES

The million dollar question asked by so many anglers is how often they should service their reels.

Rust is probably the top factor that causes untold issues inside a reel. Saltwater is no respecter of expensive equipment, and if it’s not cleaned off properly — irrespective of how long ago a service has been done — and is left to sit, it will destroy a reel.

The frequency of your services depends on how often you fish, what conditions you fish in and whether the reels get subjected to a lot of salt spray.

A rule of thumb that I recommend to clients is that if your reels are going to be stored for some time, rather service them before storage knowing that when the time comes to use them again they will be ready to work properly.

This works well for many of our inland anglers who only make the trek to fish at the coast a few times a year and when they do fish they will chance even a few inclement days because time is limited.

The bottom line is that if you take care of your equipment properly it won’t let you down when you have “the big one” on the other end of your line.

For more information on reel repairs, servicing and upgrades contact Paul Nixon on 083 940 6273.