I may have gone crazy as I strip / lube my Senators. I thought I saw it being done in the tutorials but maybe not.
On the Senators - do any of you brush grease (I am using Penn) on the side plates and/or inside of chrome rings before you put the reels all back together? As I have acquired some older ones over the years, a couple of have come with cracked rings, which I understand to be the result of the side plates swelling. What causes the side plates to swell? Should I not put any grease in there and if I do, will that contribute to potential swelling/cracking down the road?
Thanks in advance.
I will always apply a very thin coat of grease to the rings before re-installing (assuming that they just fall off). I brush it on with a toothbrush and then wipe it off with a cloth so that a thin layer is present to seal the rings from contaminants.
Sideplates swell from maily oils and moisture that is absorbed in the sideplates. Sometimes, there's nothing you can do. it's a composition of UV breaking down the material allowing moisure to enter. Once expanded, if the moisure is expelled, it produces microscopic air gaps. Kind of like if you take a window screen and stretch it. after somepoint, it will loose its shape and not return to the original shape.