I just cleaned by lews speed spool and put all the right lubricants on the right things im pretty sure. Put oil on the bearings and spool shaft and grease on the gears in the lube port. Now when i reel the reel it doesnt feel as smooth as it did before? Did i put to much grease on the gears? not enough? When I wind it really hard then let it go it feels ok at first but then feels rough at the end if that makes any sense. I cleaned off all the excess/old grease and oil before I applied the new.

Thanks for any help!

Did you flush the bearings before you added new oil? Also, keep in mind that most companies will pack the bearings with grease, and it will make the bearings seem smoother than they really are. I am not surprised to hear it is not as smooth as it was after the clean, but that is the nature of those reels. Just in case, I would take it back apart and make sure everything went back together the right way. I know Im gonna get bashed for this post, but in my experience it is the same thing that happened to me with this companies products.

No i didnt flush the bearings. How do you do that? Run it through water? And yeah i put it back together the right way i think its either putting too much/not enough and the bearings things you said.

Thanks for the quick help

Youre going to want to remove the bearings, remove the shields as well and soak them in lighter fluid or acetone, changing it out after soaking until the fluid is clear. Then spin them on something that can hold the inside still like a pencil and make sure theyre not grinding, free spinning. Let them dry then oil them(one drop per bearing).

Get a small jar, like baby food size. Fill it halfway with acetone, and drop a few bearings in it. Keep swirling the acetone and bearings around for about 10-20 seconds, and let them sit for about a minute or two. Repeat 2-3 times, or until the acetone gets really dirty with old oil/grease residue. Take the bearings out, and empty the jar. Refill the jar with more acetone, and drop the same bearings in, and swirl and sit, repeat until the acetone no longer gets dirty. Take the bearings out and give them a shot with brake clean to force out any little bit that may be left. I like to put a drop of oil on each side of each bearing, then put them on the end of a pencil, and spin them a bit to work the oil in.

Youre going to want to remove the bearings, remove the shields as well and soak them in lighter fluid or acetone, changing it out after soaking until the fluid is clear. Then spin them on something that can hold the inside still like a pencil and make sure theyre not grinding, free spinning. Let them dry then oil them(one drop per bearing).

do not remove the shields!

haha im not really sure how to get the bearings out? Its probably something simple im hoping but cant figure it out.

Usually the spool bearing in the side cover opposite of crank is held in by a small clip, DO NOT LOOSE IT! Put the side plate in a plastic ziploc while you take it off so if the clip goes flying out, it doesnt get lost. The spool bearing behind the tension knob should just slide out. The rest of the 10 bearings that are in that reel, well, good luck with that, lol. Just keep the schematics handy just in case.

The Lews has spool bearings in each side plate as well as one on the spool shaft. The lube port is useless IMO as all you're doing is adding new grease on top of old. To get the old grease off the reel needs to be stripped. If you're unsure of how to remove the bearings a full break down may be more than you want to tackle at this point. You do not want oil or grease on the spool shaft. All that will do is hamper casting. Whipping the handle around on a reel isn't really a good indicator of problems either. Cranking the reel as you would in a normal retrieve feeling for any bumps, grinds or hang ups will give you a better idea what's going on inside.

If you'd like to send reels in for service, members here get 10% discount.

do not remove the shields!

I remove at least one shield on every bearing in my reels and both on my spool bearings. All they do is hold in crap. You can soak a bearing, remove the shield and soak it again and still get stuff out.

thanks for the replies and yeah it sounds like im going to end up just getting all of em serviced before spring

Thanks!