Grease solvents

[OkobojiEagle]

I've been using Penn blue grease on freshwater reel gears.  Simple Green and/or acetone in a US cleaner works well to clean them up the next winter.  I lubed the gears on one of my reels this winter with Shimano drag grease to see if there was any difference in performance compared to the Penn grease.  Cleaning my applicator brush in Simple Green didn't dissolve the Shimano grease as it has done with Penn grease.  Am I going to have more difficulty next winter cleaning the Shimano grease out of this reel?  What would a recommended solvent for Shimano drag grease be?  Thanks.

oe

[HalBrown]

Some use brake cleaner or acetone (but not nail polish remover).  I use Yamaha Marine grease in my pinion bearings and Watkins household degreaser and hot water (50/50) followed by a lighter fluid soak cleans them well. You get it on line from the Watkins Company and I have my wife to thank for this product.  Boy, does it strip grease and is completely harmless to us and the environment.  Great for tough laundry stains also.  Based on the information I got on this site, when I clean my pinion bearing next time they are going to be dipped in TSI 301 and not greased, but then I only fish fresh water.

[Sandspinner]

I use marine grease as well.  I use WD 40 with an old tooth brush when cleaning off the grease.

[aus bass]

White spirits soak and toothbrush rub for me. No trace of grease will remain.

[Lunker Larry]

I have great results from Ardent Reel Cleaner. A bit strong smelling but doesn't harm plastics or anything. You can buy the kit with a parts soaker at BPS.

[Prefessa]

WD 40 works for me to remove grease. I am old school. Back in the day we made our own by blending 3 parts mineral spirits with 1 part motor oil . That formula was taken straight out of the manual that came in the old blue n white boxes with the metal edges that Penn reels came in. What is nice about that is when the solvent evaporated it left a minute coating of oil on the parts that prevented corrosion.

So I have two wide mouth jars. One with this stuff and one with 50/50 simple green/water. Parts with grease go into the solvent and the jar goes into my US cleaner.

Some parts get both. Like main gears I want to make sure they are oil free so that I can endure the drag washers don't get contaminated.

[thedw]

any solvent would be fine.

flush.

Scrub with tooth brush

flush.

repeat 

[bluefish69]

Prefessa

You are sounding like EC Newellman he cleans everything in WD 40.

Mike