Critical parts for maintaining your reels

Critical parts for maintaining your reels

Here are some tips, if you decide to take your reel apart for cleaning and maintaining yourself.

Bearing clip removal

These are the retaining clips that hold the bearings in place. Usually octagon shaped. Removing the clip is fairly simple. Put your forefinger over the bearing clip, use a pair of tweezers and grab hold of the clip, slide the tweezers ends toward the open end of the clip and pull the end of the clip in and lift out the clip. All the while, keeping your fore finger over the clip. Be careful, they sometimes take on a life of their own.

Bearing clip installation

Same principle applies. Put your forefinger over the bearing cavity, using tweezers install the back of the bearing clip and one side and then slide the tweezers up towards the open end of the clip pull in and push down. That's all there is to it.

Bearing Removal

Unfold a paper clip, bend one end at a right angle, small enough to fit inside the bearing. Now, you have a bearing puller. Insert the right angle inside the bearing and lift out. Paper clip makes a great tool.

Bearing Installation

Position the bearing over bearing cavity. Using your forefinger apply even pressure to seat the bearing. Never hit or use heavy force to seat the bearing. The tolerance between the outside of bearing and the inside of the bearing cavity is very close.

Bearing Maintenance

Cleanliness and care of bearings is very important. Clean bearings in a bottle cap with Lighter fluid or Acetone in it. Swish bearings around until clean. Air dry on a towel. Spin the bearing on the end of a screwdriver to ensure they are spinning freely. Apply one drop of oil per bearing.

Chemicals

It is not a good idea to use chemicals on reels and this is why....The use of harsh chemicals such as gasoline on plastic parts in reels may not show up until later. The chemicals can corrode parts. Use of a bio-degradable cleaner is highly recommended to clean reels and parts.

Copper Insulators

These are located in the left side plate of the reel and inside the Cast Control Cap, they may be round or rectangular in shape. From time to time, they will get dented due to the tightening of the Cast Control Cap causing the spool shaft ends to indent the insulator. Check them and turn them over so the smooth side will be in contact with spool shaft ends.

Curved washers

They are actually called Drag Spring Washers. These two washers should always be mounted like this ( ) one curved up and one curved down. This is necessary for compression when the star drag is tightened down.

E Clips

These clips are shaped like an E. Remove by positioning your forefinger over them. Insert one tip of open tweezers into the back of the E, pull out just a tad until you are able to grab hold of the clip with the tweezers completely to remove it. Be sure to hold your finger over the clip until you get a good bite on it with tweezers.

Grease

The application of grease is important. Grease should be applied at the base of the gear teeth so when the teeth of the gears mesh together, the grease is being used as intended. Wiping the outside of gears with grease will cause the grease to splatter inside of the reel and not be on the teeth where it is supposed to be. Grease with a good temperature rating is preferred. Never use Vaseline.

Line Guide

It is the piece at the front of reel with an eyelet that line is threaded from the reel spool to the rod. The line guide travels back and forth on the worm gear. It holds the line guide pawl.

Line Guide Pawl

This small piece is mounted in the cavity on the line guide and held in place by a cap. The pawl travels between the flattened teeth of the worm gear. If the pawl is hanging up or stopping on one side of the reel, remove and inspect it. Examine the sides looking for scratches and gouges. The tips will be worn and not sharply pointed. The worm gear may have burrs or scratches also on the flattened teeth. Generally, it is a good idea to replace both of these at the same time.

Line Slipping

With braided line on the spool, and if the drag will not tighten down like you want it to. The solution to this problem is to spool at least 10-15 yards of mono-filament line on the spool first, then tie the braided line to the mono-filament.

Quantum Hot Sauce

It has some very unique properties not found in ordinary reel oils. Its low viscosity allows for an extremely free rotation of the crank handle and a lightning-fast Free Spool that may scare you. Special additives cause the lubricant to bond at the molecular level with the base metal providing superior corrosion protection and a lubrication bond that remains.

Pinion

As the handle is turned in the retrieve mode, the pinion sets down on the spool shaft. If retrieve is started prior to lure landing, the pinion doesn't get a chance to seat on the spool shaft. After a period of time, there will be a clatter click and that is the pinion trying to seat on the spool shaft. The pinion stops the spool rotation, if the pinion does not seated correctly, the fish will be hauling off and you probably can't turn or stop the get-away.

Proper reel care

Proper reel care

Proper care can be the key to the longevity of your fishing reel. There are some simple steps that you can take now to keep your reel working at its best next year.
There are five things that need to be done the number 6 item is for next year.

1. Before storing your reels for the winter, be sure to loosen the drag as much as you can, this will extend the life of your drag system.

2. Oil your level-wind system lightly with a Teflon or silicone-based oil.

3. Do not apply excessive grease or oil to your reel, or it may hamper its performance, reduce casting distance, and reduce the drag system performance.

4. Apply a small amount of lubrication to the drag washers.

5. Remove the screw on the cover that controls the spool tension and put a drop of lite oil in it.

6. Wait till next spring to put new line on your reels, this will reduce line memory problems.

Reel cleaning

If you feel like doing a complete cleaning, a reel isn't as difficult or scary as one might think. Use a bio-degradable cleaner and an old cake pan.
Lay out strips of tape (masking tape will do) on table and write numbers on tape every 2 inches or so. As you remove a part, lay it by the number. For instance, the first thing removed should be the nut cap screw on handle nut cap. Lay the screw on number one, lay the nut cap on number 2, lay the handle nut on 3. Continue until all parts are removed. To re-install parts, start with the highest number and keep going until the last part mounted which is the nut cap screw laying on the number one. It is very important to jot down on a piece of paper the orientation of each part if you don't have a schematic. When disassembling your reel, orient the reel the same way each time it is picked up. Doing this allows you to install parts correctly and will eliminate confusion of part installation. If you fish a lot you should disassembled your reel for a thorough cleaning and re-lubrication of its innards at least once a year. Before you put them away for the winter is a good time to perform this chore. If you aren't comfortable doing this yourself, call the reel's manufacturer for the factory authorized service center nearest you.

Weightless Rig

There are plenty of lures and situations that call for the simplest of all rigging, a Texas-rigged soft plastic with no weight at all and a light wire hook. Lures include floating worms, topwater frogs and sometimes creature baits and plastic minnow lures when the fish are feeling exceptionally finicky (like after a cold front). An unweighted rig provides an extremely realistic and slow sink rate, or allows the angler to work a soft plastic on top or just under the surface.

How It’s Done: Simply tie on a light wire hook and Texas rig a soft plastic. For a floating retrieve use rapid twitches that keep the worm within a foot or so of the surface. Minnow lures are retrieved in a similar manner, but often more slowly. For topwater frogs retrieve over and through cover with twitches and shakes of the rod tip to impart action without moving the bait too far forward. Frogs can be reeled at a constant speed once they clear the cover just like you would a buzzbait. For minnow baits, quick twitches of the rod tip prompt a walk-the-dog action in open water. When using an unweighted rig with creature baits simply cast and retrieve with a slow-motion pump-and-pause.

Soft Plastics for Weightless light wire Hook Rigs: Any soft plastic can be used with an unweighted hook, but most effective are floating worms, minnows and topwaters.