I just took down, degreased, re-lubed and assembled all my reels. Only have to replace the Pawls on my 965 and 975. Anyone who has these reels should keep a few in the surf bag. Anyways, I put my bearings in lighter fluid to strip the grease and hopefully seep in and clean them out. I'm talking about the sealed ones, not the rollers. Then I heat them up a little and let them sit to make sure the excess fluid seeps out. I then let them sit for a while in instrument oil and coat them with some Super Grease (teflon), just a little layer. Thing is my bearings sound a little raspy. I've never had this problem before and am just wondering if anyone has any better ideas for making them sing sweeter. I like broken in bearings better than new ones but I don't like ones that sound like Nauset is in there. Do you guys replace yours or have some nifty ideas? Lemme know. God knows I have time to take them down again for kicks...

I've been using the de-natured alcohol for cleaning and stripping my bearings. I have not added anything to them other than rocket oil and have not noticed a problem... Did you try again to see if it happened a second time?? Maybe the coat was to heavy or inconsistent over the bearings?? I have not personally played with the Penns (but I want one)
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