son of a beach..sand is the destroyer of technology

[pepperist]

hi, guys, i have a question that wouldn't really be a concern for boat guys, but definitely would be for people who fish from the surf. i recently fished on a beach through some crazy weather (rain and gusts of 25+mph winds) that also involved a bunch of sand and wet sand being picked up and flung at my conventional reel. it was only a matter of time before it locked up. my question is, after tearing down the entire reel, what's the best way to go about getting ALL of the sand out? i'm guessing i'll have to degrease everything, since those pesky little grains tend to stick. is there a good degreasing product/strategy that's safe for the internals? and afterwards, do i just rinse off the different parts with some water to get the sand out and then regrease? or is there a better method altogether? thanks in advance.  

[kamuwela]

my way is a tupperware with a metal colender. home depot sells wd40 in the gallon for about 15 bucks. put the parts in the colender and soak in the wd40. use a parts brush or a tooth brush to clean it good. after you are done you can do a final cleaning with carb or brake clean and compressed air. make sure not to wash the drag washer's.
                                               good luck
                                                  kamu

[Alto Mare]

Good call from Kamu. Looks like we're the only two here that like to use WD-40 for cleaning parts. You could also do one other thing Pepperist; get yourself some older Penn reels and you will notice that they won't lock up on you. You should still do as mentioned above, every now and then.

[alantani]

this one is tough.  once you get sand inbetween the gear teeth, the gears will never be the same.  curiosity always gets the better of you and you can't help but crank the handle.  that damages the gear teeth and they will forever sound rough.  the trick is to grease the drag washers first.  with star drag reels, you will not have to worry about saltwater or sand intrusion.  then use bearings that are shielded and packed with grease.   once again, saltwater and sand intrusion will not be an issue. now all you have to worry about is sand into the gears.

so at this point you can simply remove a side plate and it the insides of the reel with the lots of water from the garden house and a spray nozzle.  your reel will sound rough because the gears are damaged.   that was a forgone conclusion when you decided to fish this reel on the beach.  it's an old fatalistic japanese expression, "shigata ga nai."  roughly translated, it means that it is something that can not be helped.   

[pepperist]

thanks for the replies. i'll degrease, rinse, and hope the reel still lasts me ten years. happy fishing!