General Servicing questions

[tkei]

I do all my servicing of all the family reels myself. They USUALLY work again after I am finished and generally I have no (or very few) spare parts afterwards, but the reels don't always feel as smooth as they did when new, or before the service, unless they were totally wreched before I got hold of them.
I seem to think I am using the wrong greases/ oils in the reels, or on the wrong components of the reels, ie oil when it should be grease, or vise versa.
 
What oils and greases should I use?
I normally use penn lube as the oil and the red kingfisher grease as grease. For carbon drags the calsgrease.
 
The other question is how on earth do I remove the bearing shields without wrecking hem completely with a small screwdriver etc. The bearing then has to stand open leading to more water/ dirt/ salt ingress.
bearing wise, I oil main bearings in a casting reel, but if a trolling reel then I grease them.
what is the secret to getting the reel feeling smooth and so it actually works properly again?
 

[REEFMAN]

Some guys actually mark the Drive gear and pinion gear, where they meet each other before taking them out. The 'mesh' of the gears together apparently fit better the way they were first used. If you change that alignment, then the gear teeth need to work a 'new fit' until smooth again. I'm sceptical about this though, different size gears and all... impossible for them to line up.

The greases and oils you use are perfect.
Bearing shields I hate, because you never know what's happening underneath them. Open bearings in my opinion are much easier to service and inspect after each trip.

To remove bearing shields without destroying them is difficult, but use a Stanley blade, that is usually strong enough and thin enough to pop them out without damaging.

[pieta]

Persenaly I don't think that there is any truth in the marking of the gears. Your main driving gear is normaly mutch bigger than the other one so this would be the reson why it is hard to think that the two gears gets run in a patern. On the grinder it is something els. When you look at the gears many of the grinder on the market have one allmost squere gear running on an oval gear. With these reels the timing between this gears are very inportent. If you slip up with the timing it can differ from running hard or not running at all.

[REEFMAN]

Persenaly I don't think that there is any truth in the marking of the gears. Your main driving gear is normaly mutch bigger than the other one so this would be the reson why it is hard to think that the two gears gets run in a patern. On the grinder it is something els. When you look at the gears many of the grinder on the market have one allmost squere gear running on an oval gear. With these reels the timing between this gears are very inportent. If you slip up with the timing it can differ from running hard or not running at all.

It's an interesting subject... what I'm going to do in the near future is to open up a reel, mark the gears and see if they do actually follow a pattern of the same teeth engaging on the Pinion.

[Spieks]

Persenaly I don't think that there is any truth in the marking of the gears. Your main driving gear is normaly mutch bigger than the other one so this would be the reson why it is hard to think that the two gears gets run in a patern. On the grinder it is something els. When you look at the gears many of the grinder on the market have one allmost squere gear running on an oval gear. With these reels the timing between this gears are very inportent. If you slip up with the timing it can differ from running hard or not running at all.

It's an interesting subject... what I'm going to do in the near future is to open up a reel, mark the gears and see if they do actually follow a pattern of the same teeth engaging on the Pinion.

More. Don't waste your time in marking the gears. The wear patern will stay the same no matter where you install the gears. If the real does not feel smooth after servicing there is someting wrong. There is excessive wear, pitting to the parts or the sand present was not removed properly and you are sitting with grinding paste. For the deep groove ball bearing seals(zz bearings with 2 metal seals) I personally do not remove them! They are there to keep crap out and removed you reduce the bearing life . The OEM would have installed non sealed bearings if they thought it would be an improvement. Open bearings run in a wet sump, and does not like water and dirt. If you keep your reel water free and well oiled after use, the bearings should not corrode. 

[pieta]

Reefs if you have two gears turning on each other that are the same sice you will have a ware patern to look at. In this case you can mark the gears and the mark will line up on every full rotation. But in the case of a multiplier real your drive gear is round and about five to six times the sice of the pinion gear. If you should mark this gears that differs in sice you mite find that the smaller gear will do five or six rotations befor meeting the mark on the bigger gear, that is if they do meet again. The fact that most of the reels have a gear ratio of 5.1-1 or 6.1-1 tells you that the changes of lining up the marks again is 0. If you have a straight ratio like 5-1 or 6-1 you will have alining marks on every fith or six turm of the pinion. This is what my head tells me. I can be wrong.