Bearing

[arrowhawk]

Is there a rule of thumb?
Which do you grease?
Which do you oil?
When to you keep the shield?
When do you remove and leave open?

[Fish-aholic]

For best freespool, spool bearings have the shields removed and are lubed with an oil of your choice. If the reel is to be used for trolling, there is no need for freespool, therefore you can grease the spool bearings and replace the shields.

All non spool bearings are greased and shields replaced where possible. If the shields are not removeable via a retainer ring, remove one shield by carefully picking it out. Btw, this shield 'will not' be replaceable. You can now palm pack with grease making sure the excess penetrates the remaining shield left behind. This removes any remaining air pockets. This is how to 'manually pack' your non spool bearings, but it is time consuming.  

There is an Alan Tani bearing packer for grease guns. The availablility of I'm not sure, but it cuts the greasing of your non spool bearing times in half.  

Anti reverse bearings are oiled. *caution* too much oil can cause slippage of the clutch and the handle can backwind, more so in colder climates. Do not use grease as it can also cause the anti reverse bearing to fail.

Fish  

[Bryan Young]

That's about it.  And Alan has bearing packers available.  Maybe 5 left and more are on order.

[bluefish69]

Bryan

No rush but I would like to acquire a Bearing Packer.

Mike