I have begun to lube the worm gear on some costumer reels with grease, I have noticed that grease stays longer than oil, and does not affect casting distance notably on my own reels. But I am worried about the long term effects, as grease picks up dirt easier that might add additional wear to the pawl.
On reels with a disengaging level wind I am always greasing the worm gear, but I am not sure if I should use this a procedure on costumer reels.
I do a LIGHT coat of yamaha marine grease.
i use corrosion x. either one should be fine.
I suspect the choice between oil or grease would depend on where the fishing's happening. All the worms I see come back for fix, that had the factory grease left on (mostly Abu 7000's) are choked with black crud, grit, and worse: sand. I send them back out with a light coat of Dritz sweing machine oil.
In a straight ocean troll fishery, I send the worms out with a very thick coat of marine grease (mostly Penn 340/345's)
I an in-river scene, they go out with a spray of Super Slick Stuff (mostly Abu 55/6500's)
I use corrosion x or reel butter.
I now use TSI321 if I'm not taking the level wind assembly apart and TSI301 if the assembly is apart.
After a few years of trial and error, it's just Inox MX3 these days.
I also agree with Ken's comment:
QuoteAll the worms I see that had the factory grease left on are choked with black crud, grit, and worse: sand.
Cheers, Justin
Quote from: Bryan Young on February 04, 2012, 08:33:52 PM
I now use TSI321 if I'm not taking the level wind assembly apart and TSI301 if the assembly is apart.
+1
except the levelwind always comes apart when i tear em down (yeah i know, i'm crazy :D). So far been staying lubed nice, and almost no dirt pick up. Stuff is great!
Geoff
Quote from: redsetta on February 05, 2012, 03:56:55 AM
After a few years of trial and error, it's just Inox MX3 these days.
I also agree with Ken's comment:
QuoteAll the worms I see that had the factory grease left on are choked with black crud, grit, and worse: sand.
Cheers, Justin
If I want to go a spray lube, I'll use the Canadian equivalant of Super Slick Stuff. They re-label it, and sell as HyTek dry garage door lube. It's pretty decent. http://www.superslickstuff.com/lubricant/Super-Slick-Slick-Stuff.html
A dry lube on these sounds like a great idea, no attracting and collecting dirt. Anyone tried Boeshield T-9 on these?
Here in the uk we have a protuct called 3 in 1 ptfe dry lubricant that i currently use for loosening tight spigots on rods, do you think that this would work for levelwind worm gears?
Quote from: timpz on February 13, 2012, 10:24:05 PM
Here in the uk we have a protuct called 3 in 1 ptfe dry lubricant that i currently use for loosening tight spigots on rods, do you think that this would work for levelwind worm gears?
If the washout is not to fast, the levelvind system is constantly wet while fishing.
I use mountain bike chain lube.
Great idea actually!, I remember you cat get some quite sophisticated wet lubes for bikes or even waxes with low washout properties.
I used to use Pedro's Dry Ice chain wax. It would flake quickly and clog the derailieur. When I got into serious racing we gave the chains a simple parafin bath. The idea of using wax is not to lubricate the external area like the worm gear but to lube the hinge pins. Has anybody tried Phil Whites Tenacious Oil? Phil White makes incredible grease! Ive used tenacious oil to lube the guts in spinners with good success. I'm gonna have to try it on my Abus too.
No, I have some synthetic wetlube for road bikes, but I prefer not to mix it with the mineral oil products. But on a clean level wind I will give it a try. I have used the Pedro ice wax also, but I didn't like it.
grease on a worm and gears that propel it slows things down a bit.
Best is to use NLGI 0 grease .
I recently started using TSI321 on them and my baitcasters have never run so smoothly.
x2 boon.
I dunk the worm gear and pawl (and leave 'em to evaporate dry) when I service the reels, then put a few drops of Inox on the assembly after each fish...
I use Bell Synthetic Bicycle Chain Lube. So far it works great and lasts. No difference in casting, but then again we're tossing big muskie baits.
I use ReelX. For both level-winds and for a worm drive in a spinning reel.
Like many others here..I've found the less you put on the levelwind the better it will perform. I believe heavy lube or grease wears the assembly faster, because of all the sand and dirt it will pick up and hold. 8)
I do a lot of winding and grinding with my reels and on advice from this forum switched to Corrosion X from grease about 2 years ago.
It seems easier to maintain as I can clean it of without stripping the reel, solvent, toothbrush and compressed air. I don't see much difference in wear yet.
Used Penn Muscle Grease from Penn or sourced from Muscle Products Corp (MPC) and switched over to Penn Blue Grease and have not had a lube problem with my Penn spinning reels.