Dropped my reel in the river while kayak fishing. This river has a good bit of silt in it. Took the reel apart to clean said silt. Cleaned everything with Ardent Reel cleaner. Oiled the bearings, greased the gears and worm drive. Reel feels rough on retrieve. Like dirt is still somewhere I didn't get to. Could it be the knobs on the handle? Or the grease attracting dirt on the worm drive? I love this reel and it's frustrating me that it isn't as smooth now.

Hello,

 

You need to flush the bearings.

 

DVC can take care of it if it's beyond what you feel comfortable doing.

 

Regards,

 

Josh

I can't speak for yours, but I have an LFS, and the knobs don't turn very smoothly at all on it. I actually have to not tighten them down as much as I normally would for them to not annoy me greatly. But in your case, it could be a number of things, as you have implied. Dirty water can get things into places you can't get with a routine cleaning. It doesn't take much to make a reel feel gritty. I'd have to have someone with more expertise than I do it, which is a drag, but it is what it is.

Ardent Reel Kleen is for gunk and residue. It will not simply make the fine rocks and sand dissolve. You need a bearing flush as Josh said.

cdunlap, I have dealt with this too, good luck.  I bought a bottle of simichrome off Amazon and took the reel apart again and pretty much polished everything.  It was a lot of work, but the reel casts and retrieves smoother than ever.  I wouldn't think it would be the knobs or worm drive, but maybe DVT could chime in on this.

DVT might be tired of answering my questions by now, I've asked quite a few. I've got all of the bearings soaking right now. Gonna polish and really super tune it. Hopefully that fixes it. I kept finding grey water/lube mixture on parts that move, which in my mind means metal dust, which means sediment eating away at something in the reel. Hopefully not too much damage has been done.