Alan's Workbench
Servicing a Bearing
Apr. 27 2009, 1:39 PM
Apr. 27 2009, 1:39 PM
You’re serious about fishing. You’re serious about your gear. You can strip down and rebuild your reels in your sleep. Sometimes you do. The drags in your reels have all been upgraded to greased carbon fiber, the internal surfaces have a light coat of grease, and you even have some custom handle grips. Bearings, however, have been that last little item that have continued to plague you. You would like more free-spool to improve your casting distance. Adding different lubes have increased your free-spool times, but you can’t seem to break the 60-second barrier. You would like to pack other of these bearings with grease to protect them a little better. Well, it's time to open them up.
What you really need to do is get more distance in your cast. In the past, you would clean spool bearings by soaking them in lighter fluid, white gas, or try to spray them with carburetor cleaner. The spool would spin well for a day or two, then start to slow down. What’s happening is that there is some residual grease still inside the bearing. If you could open it up, that’s what you would see. Like many, you’ve never even considered the possibility of removing the shields or seals of a bearing. Well, someone put this bearing together. That means someone else can take it apart.
Bearing design is pretty simple. You have an inside race, an outside race, the balls and a cage to hold the balls in place. To protect the balls, there are metal shields or plastic/phenolic seals to keep the dirt out and hold the grease in. Let’s take a peek inside.
The most common metal shield design is one that is held in by a retaining ring. Use a small hook to pick out the end of the retaining ring. You can then use the point of the hook to remove the shield. The advantage of this system is that the shield can be replaced if you want.
The other metal shield type is one that is just pressed in. From a manufacturing point of view, this is a quick and easy system to work with. To remove this type of shield, you need a sharp point to puncture the metal shield and pop it out. This might appear daunting, but with a little practice it can be quick and easy. Once these shields are removed, they will be too damaged to replace and will have to be discarded.
The plastic or phenolic seal is the last type used. These are by far the easiest bearing types to service. Use the point of a very small blade to gently pop out the seal. If the seals are removed without damage, they can easily be pressed back into place and the bearing will still spin well. If the seal is damaged at all, it will commonly rub against the inside race and slow down the bearing considerably.
Once these bearings are open, you can easily clean them out with carburetor cleaner and gentle compressed air. Then you can use your lube of choice and get this bearing to really spin. You can also hand pack the bearing with grease and make sure that are no air pockets that will hold salt water.
Bearing design is pretty simple. You have an inside race, an outside race, the balls and a cage to hold the balls in place. To protect the balls, there are metal shields or plastic/phenolic seals to keep the dirt out and hold the grease in. Let’s take a peek inside.
The most common metal shield design is one that is held in by a retaining ring. Use a small hook to pick out the end of the retaining ring. You can then use the point of the hook to remove the shield. The advantage of this system is that the shield can be replaced if you want.
The other metal shield type is one that is just pressed in. From a manufacturing point of view, this is a quick and easy system to work with. To remove this type of shield, you need a sharp point to puncture the metal shield and pop it out. This might appear daunting, but with a little practice it can be quick and easy. Once these shields are removed, they will be too damaged to replace and will have to be discarded.
The plastic or phenolic seal is the last type used. These are by far the easiest bearing types to service. Use the point of a very small blade to gently pop out the seal. If the seals are removed without damage, they can easily be pressed back into place and the bearing will still spin well. If the seal is damaged at all, it will commonly rub against the inside race and slow down the bearing considerably.
Once these bearings are open, you can easily clean them out with carburetor cleaner and gentle compressed air. Then you can use your lube of choice and get this bearing to really spin. You can also hand pack the bearing with grease and make sure that are no air pockets that will hold salt water.
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November 15, 2011, 9:41 am
Do you need the shields or is ok for them to be open?