I've been taking apart my reels lately, just some pfluegers and bass pro baitcasters, but whenever i take them apart i clean them all out completely, then put on ardent reel butter grease and oil , put them together exactly how they came but now they are not nearly as smooth as they were. Any ideas? Maybe i'm not putting enough lube back on? Maybe the lube is bad quality? The grease does seem super thick. Any help would be great because i've got a tournament pro coming and am scared whether to ever open it or not

I've been taking apart my reels lately, just some pfluegers and bass pro baitcasters, but whenever i take them apart i clean them all out completely, then put on ardent reel butter grease and oil , put them together exactly how they came but now they are not nearly as smooth as they were. Any ideas? Maybe i'm not putting enough lube back on? Maybe the lube is bad quality? The grease does seem super thick. Any help would be great because i've got a tournament pro coming and am scared whether to ever open it or not

Use to run into this when we were servicing plastic graphite/non metal framed/sidewall reels looooong time ago.

They would break in one way, then after you dis-assemble, they would never go back exactly how they broke in (smooth/free).

As mfg's improved side plates, and frames andinternals the reel/s would hold most of the tolerances they had at assembly time,

making the re-assembly after service easier... Now a days no problem.

 

Just this service techs .02¢  

 

Good Luck & Tight Lines! 

You can apply too much lube and make your reel less smooth. If you take it apart again and see grease/oil everywhere, you may have applied too much.

How do you apply the grease? The reel butter i have is super thick and ive just been rubbing it on my fingers and then rubbing it onto gears, i dont think i put too much though

The Eeel Butter is not the problem. I use it, but then again I fish Shimano. Could be the reel. Could be not enough grease. Could be way too much, but it would have to be WAY too much.

I'll put on a little more grease and see if its any smoother

Work it in for a while too. It will get smoother the more you reel it.