i just watched a great video on you tube on how to service your shimano reels. it is a piece of cake and i serviced all of my shimanos. my question is this: will it harm the reel if you do not use shimanos grease? i went to my local bait/service shop and they sold me some grease that they use on ALL of their services including shimano. i am amazed at how easy it was to do a complete service.

Boca,

You don't have to use Shimano grease. There are a lot of others that work just as well. I use Cals on my Shimano reels and have no problem. By the way, what did the shop tell you to use?

Kevin

It probably won't harm your reel. I like Cal's light grease (purple), Shimano Permalub, and some others. Reel Butter and Hot Sauce are right out, though.

Boca,

You don't have to use Shimano grease. There are a lot of others that work just as well. I use Cals on my Shimano reels and have no problem. By the way, what did the shop tell you to use?

Kevin

they sold me a jar of this purple grease for $5. it works great. i just followed the guy from shimano's directions on how and where to apply. where do you guys get the cals grease?

http://www.smoothdrag.com/

I know what videos you're talking about Bruce. Good info. It's not a "major" cleaning. It does give you enough info on what to do and all though. Did most of my reels last night. Makes such a big difference when you clean them out. Those videos leave out stuff like soaking the bearings, oiling the worm gear, etc etc. It's d**n sure a step in the right direction though.

Definitely better than nothing. When I clean a reel, it is COMPLETELY dismantled:

Agreed. Completely taking everything apart is the best way to do it. But the videos do give you a good set of tips on a thorough cleaning and lubing. Dismantling everything is more of a once a year kind of thing for me. I send mine out for that. I'm not ready to completely break mine down, even with the schematics for my reels. I probably should give it a whirl one of these days.

When I did mine I was surprised at the amount of drag material inside of a few of the reels I use for Peacocks. Mind you, that could have been grease that was pushed off of the drag washers. Definitely a lot of black crud and a bunch of q-tips to fix that.

Some "easy" reels to start on: Curado B/D/E, TD-A and all it's variants, Abu Ambassadeur, Calcutta B.

I'll probably give it a whirl with one of my Citica E's. Same basic reel as the Curado E. Need to get myself a new muffin tin to hold parts though. That's something I've been meaning to do for a while. I also need to pick up a nut driver and a couple of new small screwdrivers. The ones I have right now are pretty much worn down. I really don't want to strip a screw head out on a reel.

That's a good reel to start with. The only hitch is making sure you put the redundant AR Pawl back correctly, assuming you want it there anyway. I know a few that remove it altogether. A #0 and #1 Phillips head, and small crescent wrench should be all the tools you need, IIRC.

Definitely better than nothing. When I clean a reel, it is COMPLETELY dismantled:

dang J, that is a major cleaning!

No, this is a "major cleaning." LOL.

dang J, that is a major cleaning!

This is the difference between a DIY and a Pro service. I use Superlube grease in my service but another option you may around the garage already is Yamaha marine grease. I'm not crazy about the blue dye though.

Definitely better than nothing. When I clean a reel, it is COMPLETELY dismantled:

John, aren't those parts off your motocycle?

No, vacuum cleaner.

You must have one of those special edition Daiwa vacuum cleaners. Spiffy!