I've never had one this bad. I'm not sure if it's from the factory or not. I took the knobs off to add the bearings in place of the bushings. There were already bearings in there. So someone has at least taken the knobs off. This could be their idea of how it should be. Who knows though. She's all fixed up now. Spooled with #30 pp hi vis and mounted to a champion 703. Nice little setup.

I'm going to go down the workbench later to take apart my new PXL-R and see what she has inside.  My two Tatulas were fairly heavily greased and the bearings seemed to be lubed with some pretty heavy oil.  A clean and re-lube really loosened them up.  

 

One of my Lew's Tournament Pros had spots that were lacking grease, making the clutch bar action feel hard and the re-engagement feel really bad.  That reel benefitted greatly from some TLC at the bench.

 

The Pixy feels pretty darn nice already.  Who knows what a clean/re-lube will do!

 

Tight lines,

Bob

My father's pinnacle inertia is similar...the spool bearings had grease coating....

I've never had one this bad. I'm not sure if it's from the factory or not. I took the knobs off to add the bearings in place of the bushings. There were already bearings in there. So someone has at least taken the knobs off. This could be their idea of how it should be. Who knows though. She's all fixed up now. Spooled with #30 pp hi vis and mounted to a champion 703. Nice little setup.

I've seen a lot of saltwater guys coat the inside like that to prevent water intrusion. Don't know where you got it from, but it's also a possibility.