Cleaning out salt

[Phishface]

Hi:

  I opened up my favorite reel (Fathom 15 LW) to tighten down the eccentric lever screw, it keeps working loose during the fishing season, and I noticed way to much salt buildup inside the reel. I take this reel every time I go out, Its my heavy jigging reel.
Thanks to this board I serviced the reel before last season and coated the inside with Blue grease. Two questions-
1) what's the best way/procedure to desalt the inside of the reel with the grease coating the inside?
2) how can I keep the eccentric lever screw from working it's way loose, short of using loctite?

Thank the lord for this board, and thank you Alan, it's been a life saver.

Jerome.

[foakes]

Hi Jerome --

Just got to wade in and do it --

Go ahead and clean out the grease, along with the salt build up.

Then when reassembling the reel -- try to get some extra MARINE GRADE Yamaha or Penn grease inside any areas where it will not interfere with functions, and also where it will do some good in keeping the salt water out as much as possible.  It must state Marine Grade and/or salt water resistant on the grease container.

Might consider servicing or inspecting a little more often -- when used in the salt -- unless you are already doing that.

On most Penns, there is a tiny toothed spring washer under the head of the eccentric screw.  If this does not have one -- get one from a hardware store in SS.  This will keep the screw on without loctite.  You should be able to find one in SS easy enough -- but if not, I will send you one at N/C.   But I will need measurements and a pic.

Best,

Fred

[Phishface]

Hi Fred:

  I'm using marine grade blue grease now, its he Evinrude-Johnson's marine grease, I never thought of using it as a barrier to seal where water is getting in though, great tip.
I know the washers your talking about, I never knew what they were for, I'll get one as soon as I can


Thank you Fred.

[Dominick]

Hey Fred is there anything you don't know?     Dominick

[foakes]

Hey Dom --

There is likely an infinite (tons & tons) amount of things I do not know --

But I do know there are many approaches to solving any one problem -- and none are wrong if it gets us there.

We all find methods that are efficient -- if we pay attention to details, like you do.

Best,

Fred

[johndtuttle]

If you spray it down with WD-40 or Simple Green or Windex even the grease will come out a little easier.

As Fred said, the idea is that you coat all of the "mating surfaces" and then when you button up the reel they form an effective seal for most routine salt spray.

[Phishface]

Thank you John, it went back together this morning just fine with some grease squeeze out when I tightened down the side plate screws, half way thru the fishing season I'll pull it and see if the salt water is getting in or not.
I have a Calcutta 400D I got for Christmas 2 years ago that I have not fished that much and the screws in the side plate are corroding. I opened it up and the salt has not penetrated to far into the reel. I also have a brand new Daiwa Lexa 400 that I bought to replace the one my wife dropped in the ocean last year, has this ever happened to any of you guys?
I'm disappointed that the Calcutta 400D was not ocean ready out of the box, so is giving the Lexa 400 the once over even before it sees a boat a good idea?


Thanks.
 

[johndtuttle]

Thank you John, it went back together this morning just fine with some grease squeeze out when I tightened down the side plate screws, half way thru the fishing season I'll pull it and see if the salt water is getting in or not.
I have a Calcutta 400D I got for Christmas 2 years ago that I have not fished that much and the screws in the side plate are corroding. I opened it up and the salt has not penetrated to far into the reel. I also have a brand new Daiwa Lexa 400 that I bought to replace the one my wife dropped in the ocean last year, has this ever happened to any of you guys?
I'm disappointed that the Calcutta 400D was not ocean ready out of the box, so is giving the Lexa 400 the once over even before it sees a boat a good idea?


Thanks.
 

Not only is a good idea, it is pretty much essential for all reels.

See my service tutorial on the Lexa for the how to and why.

TBH, other than Okuma in the Makaira series and Penn with their new reels there are very few that are gtg from the factory. It is quite labor intensive to properly grease all parts with appropriate lube and this includes bearings that are never, ever properly taken care of from the factory.

This is why you see so many companies touting the corrosion resistance of their reels in a bizarre Catch-22. Instead of properly lubing them at the factory and making them so that they can be properly maintained over time, they add expensive anti-corrosion features because they expect the reels will never get any maintenance ever from the average guy.

Frame screws are notorious. They sit in little nooks where salt is bound to collect and you have stainless steel threading into aluminum....dissimilar metals leads to inevitable corrosion. Simple grease in the threads will fix your trouble. Penn in their Torque reels is now putting little plastic inserts into the holes to prevent this issue but regular maintenance is the answer.


best

[Phishface]

Thank you for your service tutorial on the Lexa 400 John, it was invaluable, without it I don't think I would have the confidence to work on this new reel, and thank you all for that matter, this board has made reel maintenance rely fun, almost as fun as actually using them to fish.

Now that I have been educated, and realized I have a bunch of reels that have never been serviced, I've started my inventory overhaul by opening up my Abu Garcia Revo Toro that I've been fishing for years. Thinking it was going to be a mess of corrosion inside. I was happily surprised that It was not that bad, and that was mainly due to the fact that the inside was very well greased straight from the factory. Have you guys found this to be true with the Abu Garcia reels?
I did wipe out most of the factory grease and want thru the entire reel with blue grease and also used Cal's grease on the drags- John, Thank you for your Revo Toro tutorial, that's twice you've saved by bacon.

Jerome.   

[johndtuttle]

Thank you for your service tutorial on the Lexa 400 John, it was invaluable, without it I don't think I would have the confidence to work on this new reel, and thank you all for that matter, this board has made reel maintenance rely fun, almost as fun as actually using them to fish.

Now that I have been educated, and realized I have a bunch of reels that have never been serviced, I've started my inventory overhaul by opening up my Abu Garcia Revo Toro that I've been fishing for years. Thinking it was going to be a mess of corrosion inside. I was happily surprised that It was not that bad, and that was mainly due to the fact that the inside was very well greased straight from the factory. Have you guys found this to be true with the Abu Garcia reels?
I did wipe out most of the factory grease and want thru the entire reel with blue grease and also used Cal's grease on the drags- John, Thank you for your Revo Toro tutorial, that's twice you've saved by bacon.

Jerome.   

TBH I haven't seen the insides of very many Abu's but will state categorically that yes, proper pre-fishing service...it makes an enormous difference.

However, be sure to get some Cal's Drag Grease for your washers, pretty sure Abu's are completely dry and a potential problem area. If saltwater gets into the washers you get a sticky, chattering drag. That leads to frame flex and chipped gear teeth.

The true utility of pre-service came together for me working on old Penn 704z reels that people use on the East Coast for 'skishing'. This is literally swimming with the reel in a wetsuit in the surf or out to a rock to fish. They pack these old reels full of marine grease and simply change the grease once a year. The reels are immaculate on the inside despite the grease being saturated with saltwater.

If we think of what these greases are designed to do...They are Bearing Grease for the hubs of trailers that carry large private craft. They are submerged into 3, 4, 5 feet of saltwater when launching where the bearings eventually get completely saturated with salt, then they tow thousands of pounds of boat for hundreds of miles without failure for in many cases, years and years.

The duty we are asking them to perform in our reels is nothing in comparison.

Working on reels is a way to go fishing when we are shore bound....this is a good thing.

[Phishface]

Another question along the same line John:

I have a brand new Avet MXJ 6/4-MC 2 speed, I have never opened up a 2 speed reel before, I'm guessing I should get in there a preform the same preventative maintenance I did on my Lexa 400? But it freaks me out a little bit, I'm scared to do it.

Jerome.

[johndtuttle]

Another question along the same line John:

I have a brand new Avet MXJ 6/4-MC 2 speed, I have never opened up a 2 speed reel before, I'm guessing I should get in there a preform the same preventative maintenance I did on my Lexa 400? But it freaks me out a little bit, I'm scared to do it.

Jerome.

Yes, you most certainly should get in there and there is nothing to it. The 2-speed shifters are always a bit tedious, but no deal breakers by any means. All the rest benefits greatly from the standard treatment. Grease lightly on everything, grease in bearings, oil on spool bearings etc. You can also see Alan's post on the Daiwa Saltist LD for some detailed info. Very similar to the Avet design.

Avet in particular benefit from greasing the drag washers (despite their being horrible sticks in the mud about this issue). Being "open" to the elements they are particularly likely to get wet, and that can lead to the horrific corrosion seen in Alan's posts on the topic.

Pretty sure there is a nice video out there on them.