gear sleeve/bridge shaft lubrication question

[wolvie]

Hi all,

If this has been covered elsewhere, just let me know - I did not find it in a few searches.

I have been brought up to speed by the generous help of this site and all of its members and managed to service/upgrade my 113h's and PG545's, but noticed one difference in the posted tutorials that I was hoping could be clarified.  In the 113h/114h senator - short version tutorial the gear sleeve is left on while in Mark Mayo's progear 545/541 TUTORIAL the gear sleeve bridge pin is pushed out and the bridge shaft is lubed.  How often should I be taking the gear sleeve off the shaft and lubing it?  Annually?  Once in a blue moon?    This seems to be an optimal way to get grease between the bridge plate and the dog gear, as well as the shaft/sleeve, so I can see the motivation.  But I don't have a punch or pin the right size and if I did I think I might slip and poke it through my hand. 

Another general question - some of my internals (bridge plate, yoke, etc) are very splotchy, which I am sure is due to insufficient initial greasing when new.  I imagine I can buff this off, but is there any point?  I took of the green crusty stuff, which is not smooth and is clearly bad, but the discoloration does not seem to affect anything except my vanity. 

Thanks for your points of view!

[Brendan]

As far as lubing the gear shaft I am not sure. But I purchased two 4/0's from a friend that suffered from the vanity you're speaking of and he jeweled the bridge plates and clear coated them. I will at some point take photos and post them because no one will believe it unless I do. Looks awesome but I would not recommend it for general procedures.

[Bryan Young]

Gear Sleeve/Bridge Shaft Lube - Well, the answer is "it all depends."  I will not normally remove my gear sleeve since I commonly use CorrosionX as my lubrication.  If I will be swapping out the gear sleeve, I use marine grease, then after assembly, will add a drop or two of CorrosionX  Each time I service a reel thereafter, just add a drop or two of CorrosionX and I'm good.

I would worry about the splotchy bridge and other parts.  Just clean them off, make sure that they are smooth, apply a light coat of grease and you are good to go.  Beside, no one will be checking under the hood to see if the engine is polished.  So, I would leave it.

[alantani]

don't worry about the crud.  hit it all once with corrosion x and worry no more!

[wolvie]

Bryan,

When you service the reel and add a drop or two of corrosionx, do you do it from the "top" - the reel handle side?  or from the "lube port"? or both?

I will not worry about the appearance then - at least until I get my Bejeweler in the mail.

[Bryan Young]

I normally add a couple of drops from the top, and spin it to attempt to allow it to work downward.  If it still feels sticky, then I add a drop to the bottom and spin it some more to see if it is still sticky.  If it is, then I will remove it, clean it, and then grease the bridge and gear shaft.  I normally do not go to the lube ports since it's just as easy for me to disassemble the reel than it put corrosionX in the lube port and hope it ends up on the part that I want lubed.  One exception would be the handle and the sideplate bearings.

[wolvie]

Got it, thanks.