Greased bearings?

[GORDASKIPPER]

Please advise I thought you used bearing oil for lubricant on spool bearings not grease? I'm cleaning up some Shimano 50-80's and found this.

[handi2]

That's their typical grease. Those bearings should be packed fully with marine grease. The spool bearings are inside the spool.

[foakes]

That's their typical grease. Those bearings should be packed fully with marine grease. The spool bearings are inside the spool.

Like Keith sez —-

Saltwater reels need Marine Synthetic grease such as Penn, Cal's, Yamaha, etc. 

Freshwater only reels need greased bearings —- but not as thick.

And I generally mix synthetic oil with the grease on the freshwater reels —- about 2/3d's grease, 1/3 oil.

Best, Fred

[GORDASKIPPER]

Thanks, which grease do you prefer?

[foakes]

Thanks, which grease do you prefer?

I use Yamaha Marine Grease primarily for salt water.

It is inexpensive, saltproof, and washes out easily with solvents when re-servicing time comes around.

Alan discovered this some years ago —- and he said he figured if it would be good enough for the lower-end outdrives on boats in the salt —- it would be great for reels.  And it is.

It does not harden up over time.

Cal's & Penn are also equally good —- but the cost is 4 times as much as the Yamaha Marine.

Best, Fred

[alantani]

pretty common.  short answer, pack non-spool bearings with a good quality marine grease and call it done.

so, there are a couple of ways to go here. 

for maximum corrosion protection and minimum spin, you want a bearing with shields or seals on both sides, then pack a heavy marine grease into the bearing and completely fill it. 

for maximum spin with the least amount of corrosion protection, go with a completely cleaned out bearing that is then lubed with TSI 301 or 321.  the bearings will spin great.  this is what i normally do for spool bearings. 

and then there is this middle ground.  i think what shimano did here was to mix their teflon grease with their hydrocarbon based oil to make a thinner grease.  they had recognized that the bearings were at risk and started using these "lighter" greases. 

pay your money, take your choice!!! 

[handi2]

One is showing a Penn but it's the same practice. The spool bearings get oiled.

The bottom picture shows why I always remove this pieces and lightly grease. It traps water

Keith

[boon]

Tiagra 50s and 80s are never going to have to cast, freespool is functionally irrelevant so it makes sense to have the best protection you can. The only time line will come off these at speed will be with a fish pulling against strike drag.

[Swami805]

I've used tiagra 50's for casting a sardine or small mackerel flylining with 100lb mono. Flick the spool a little to get it started   Not super far but far enough to get them away from the boat. Takes some practice but doable