what to use clean stubborn reel parts

[fsrmn]

  I use a combination. Like Norcal Pescador I soak the part or bearing in a 50/50 mix of atf and acetone. Then I use electronic contact cleaner like Sal recommended to blast out the remaining  grease. With the little straw attachment you can get inside the bearing good. I use a generic brand but I will try the Paslode next time I go to Home Depot.

[wallacewt]

i opened up my ma20 finnor the other day
after 3or 4 years.grease had settled,sprayed some
inox m3 on the grease,good to go again,no cleaning necessary.

[LTM]

My most recent reel service was a new 750ss spinner with decades old grease in it. I wanted to speed up the process compared to the cleaning of my other Penn SS reels which took days for soaking parts so I decided to "heat" things up a bit. For the main body parts I used some "in-service" simple green that I had around in use. Only difference this time is that I heated the simple green in the microwave till it was nice and "HOT" (not boiling hot but enough). Let the parts soak in the hot simple green and the grease just dissipated with a toothbrush. Did something similar with the bearings. The bearings were the type with the non-removable shields; so I soaked them in a shot glass of hot WD40 first. Then several cycles in a shot glass of carb/brake cleaner surrounded by hot water in my sonic cooler. Heating up the mediums was a tremendous help, and I think worked out better than what I was originally thinking of using my heat gun to heat up the parts to get the grease flowing out. I got this idea from heating cosmoline from gun parts prior to introducing solvents.

Leo

[Alto Mare]

Leo, careful you don't mistake it for soup.

[fishhead69]

Straight Kerosene works great in a large glass jar with a screw on lid. You can shake the jar to agitate the parts in the Kerosene and it works like magic on old grease. The parts look like new in about 60 minutes or less.

[Shiftee]

I second the 50/50 acetone ATF mix. Read an article a while back where they described a test done by a reputable tech/science group (can't remember who). It measured the amount of torque required to remove a corroded bolt after applying different penetrating oils (including PB blaster, WD-40, Liquid Wrench, etc) and measured them against the homemade 50/50  mix. Acetone/ATF won by a considerable margin.

[borchcl]

I have had good results using Birchwood - Casey "Gun Scrubber". They used to market "Reel Scrubber", but I haven't found that for some time.

[handi2]

Another concoction

I use Keresone and Gunk heavy duty cleaner in a parts washer. It works great and removes corrosion too. 4 parts Kerosene to 1 part Gunk. The Gunk has to be diluted per the instructions.

[Reel 224]

A little side bar guys: All of these chemicals are great cleaners or solvents yes, something we should practice always, use protection on your hands, eyes,and skin. And wash you hands well after using this stuff.

I know a lot of guys will say, we know that but I just felt the need to mention it here because of all of the different chemicals that are mentioned.

Joe