Most of my reels are low-profile baitcasters. My current lube regimen is as follows
Shimano drag grease on Carbontex drags,
Generic Blue "marine" grease on gear teeth
321 on spool bearings
Reelbutter on anything else.
After my last trip, I noticed the Reelbutter had badly emulsified around the level wind. It was covered in creamy schmoo.
What do you guys use in this area?
Good question. I've been using light oil and haven't noticed any emulsification yet...
I do lube that unit more often than others.
TSI321 is what I use for LW mechanisms.
Or any good synthetic oil.
Grease doesn't work well around LW's for me.
Best,
Fred
I used various thin greases, mainly Teflon based in the past.
Then 2 years ago on recommendation of this forum started to use Corosion X and sometimes some other thin oil. I can't get TSI321 here.
Is difficult to say but I think I've had better results with the oil and also collect less dirt in the worm shaft, which is perhaps responsible for much of the wear.
TSI 321 for me. I use it on everything including tools like pliers and cutters and locks.
I too recommend a light oil on levelwinds. As open as the levelwind assembly is to water I can see where grease could foam up. Also grease is going to grab and hold sand and dirt...and that is what I believe kills so many levelwind assemblies. 8)
321 is the lube I use and it works great.
Joe
Yes I agree, a light oil, is better than grease on LW reels, cheers Don.
TSI 301 spray. It is very light oil and the spray blows the gunk out of the worm slots. WD-40 or LPS1 spray would be my second choice.
-steve
TSI321 is the only thing I use on the leve lwind, and I work 99% of my time on bait casters.
Hey Cor if I can get it here in Zim., I'm sure you can in South Africa too. Ask Dawn from Smoothdrag.
With respect Steve, I would never apply WD40 on any reel, except when cleaning stubborn residue. I'm sure you have your reasons, and would be interested to hear them.
Cheers.
Terry.
Quote from: Zimbass on February 04, 2019, 09:38:01 AM
With respect Steve, I would never apply WD40 on any reel, except when cleaning stubborn residue. I'm sure you have your reasons, and would be interested to hear them.
Everyone hates WD-40 because it leaves a nasty residue when it dries. But, it also has solvents and cleaners. If you spray it on the levelwind worm the solvents and force of the spray are blowing the crud off. Some (or perhaps all) of that crud may be drying WD-40 from the last time so once you use it you are sort of obligated to do it again the next time you use the reel. It's a short term fix but also a vicious cycle.
I hate it when a casting reel is rough and sluggish, but also hate having to clean them. If it's time to go fishing but the reel is sluggish, the easiest thing to do is just spray everything down with a low-viscosity oil. I drill drain holes in my side plates to let the saltwater run out instead of drying and crystalizing inside. Those same holes can be used to saturate the guts with spray oil and buy a few hours of trouble-free operation.
-steve
Thanks for the insight Steve. Makes sense, but, not something I would personally want to do. Horses for courses as they say. All the reels I work on are only used in fresh water, so don't have the same issues as many on here.
Cheers.
Terry.
Quote from: Zimbass on February 04, 2019, 09:38:01 AM
TSI321 is the only thing I use on the leve lwind, and I work 99% of my time on bait casters.
Hey Cor if I can get it here in Zim., I'm sure you can in South Africa too. Ask Dawn from Smoothdrag.
With respect Steve, I would never apply WD40 on any reel, except when cleaning stubborn residue. I'm sure you have your reasons, and would be interested to hear them.
Cheers.
Terry.
Sure, I can buy anything from Dawn and have done so for many years. It is just too expensive for my African Wallet when you add the shipping, and the add ons in S.A.
I enquired some time ago and If I remember correctly she could only send a small bottle and I chose not to purchase it. Small items like bearings she sends in a manner which works for me.
Hi,
I have just had a conversation with an English supplier (Blackdogtackle), and I quote:
I only send tracked to South Africa these days ... any thing else gets thieved in their system.
Tracked International Shipping
[Delivery Weight : 1 package of 0.1582 Kg's] (Insured up to £50)
£10.25
On Mon, 2019-02-04 at 21:20 +0000, Chris Rush wrote:
> Hi Russ,
> What would be the cost of shipping a 4oz bottle of TSI321 to South
> Africa? I have a friend there who is struggling to get hold of any.
> Regards,
> Chris.
Now I could maybe buy from him and ship it to you but it would be more expensive - so I guess that won't work :-\
Quote from: Tiddlerbasher on February 05, 2019, 01:56:22 AM
Hi,
I have just had a conversation with an English supplier (Blackdogtackle), and I quote:
I only send tracked to South Africa these days ... any thing else gets thieved in their system.
Tracked International Shipping
[Delivery Weight : 1 package of 0.1582 Kg's] (Insured up to £50)
£10.25
On Mon, 2019-02-04 at 21:20 +0000, Chris Rush wrote:
> Hi Russ,
> What would be the cost of shipping a 4oz bottle of TSI321 to South
> Africa? I have a friend there who is struggling to get hold of any.
> Regards,
> Chris.
Now I could maybe buy from him and ship it to you but it would be more expensive - so I guess that won't work :-\
Thanks for this info. I once looked unsuccessfully for a supplier of the stuff in the UK as I buy spares and other odds and ends there.
I have a cheap and easy transport system, my daughter lives there!
There is a thought to go to the UK in May, so perhaps Ill buy it then.
The other thing is that besides the shipping cost being expensive, and the "risks", the Post Office still charges me VAT and a handling fee. So it ends up UK VAT 21%, S.A. VAT 15% plus handling fee about $7-00 plus postage of roughly $12-00.
If you collect the stuff then you don't pay UK VAT but if you buy online you pay.....as far as I know.