Shimano Oil & Grease

I just use zebco reel oil they sell it at wal-mart.If you use a conventional reel with an antireverse bearing use very little. During the winter the oil gets thick and will cause the antireverse bearing to not funcion properly. when you try to set the hook it will not lock crank handle and spool allowing line to go out.

hot sauce

second hot sauce! JP

I third the Hot Sause suggestion. Last year I put this stuff in my older Sustain (bought before they revamped that reel a couple of years ago) and it's like an entirely different reel-for the better.

Hi all!

Shimano Bantam Oil P/N BNT1445 and Shimano Drag grease P/N A-DRA1/4
are available from Shimano directly.

Call their customer service line @

United States 877-577-0600
6:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday - Friday
Pacific Standard Time.

They are very friendly and helpful.

Shimano only recommends a full breakdown and cleaning if reels have been used in Saltwater, or have been fully submerged.

If you have a Bass Pro Shop in your local area, you can usually get them to give you the small tube of Bantam oil which us supposed to come with almost all their reels. You will only need the grease if do a complete tear down for either a worn part or MAJOR maintenance.

The Zebco oil is probably OK, but it looks a bit heavier than the Shimano lube, so I would use it VERY sparingly. The Shimano oil is a very light, clear lubricant.

There are also some firearms lubricants sold under the brand of TETRA GUN which has PTFE in it, which actually will fill the pores of the steel. There is also another GUN lubricant called BREAK FREE which contains teflon, both should work very well, but remember Fishing gear requires much less lubricate than most other sporting gear. If you decide to use an alternative lubricant, always remember, as per the Shimano instructions, only a tiny amount is needed.

I prefer to use the manufacturer' recommendations for lubricants on my reels, but the two others I mentioned, as well as the others mentioned here in this thread should also work fine.

In the case of Major Maintenance, I would prefer the TETRA lubricants because of the PTFE (the same stuff that is used to coat T-FAL® cookware), of course it is microscopically granulated and suspended in the oil or grease.

Shimano has Reel Schematics and Maintenance guides available on-line @
www.shimano.com

Always be sure to wipe off any excess grease or oil, and if using "Q-Tip" swabs for cleaning be sure to examine your parts very carefully with a magnifying glass to be sure you removed all the cotton fibers before oiling. If you have any fibers left over, they will actually cause more problems.

DO NOT use WD-40 as the WD stands for Water Displacement, and while it works great initially, it will leave a residue and actually gum up!

Like all else, read the instructions

Oh BTW if you all are wondering, yes I repair reels

Good Luck & go catch those "Big Ones"

i pack the gear box on my spinners with 7006 super lube high temp (
Maximum Temperature range from -30 F to +650 F intermittently. Excellent resistance to saltwater and most detergents and resists corrosive chemicals. Will not dry out or form harmful abrasive deposits. No oil separation, superior E.P. characteristics. Good film strength and extreme pressure capabilities. Outlasts conventional greases. Creates a high concentrated PTFE barrier.
bearing oil i use LPS.
ps PTFE is a bonding agent helps the grease bond to the gears and stay put,






gators can't climb trees

I just got off the phone with Shimano and the rep I spoke with referred to Shimano® Bantam™ Oil (BNT1445) as "basically mineral oil" and recommended that I pick some up at a bike shop or hardware store - but not from a drug store due to perfumes and other possible contaminants.

BTW, Shimano has a nice maintenance tip sheets on their website:
http://fish.shimano.com/publish/cont...tractions.html

Last week I called the 800 number and spoke to a rep from Shimano who recommended the Bantam Oil. I applied some using thier recommended appoach and my Sustain feels like new.

i use this:

Me too...shortly

had a couple guys ask about lubes recently. it's a work in progress, so here's where i'm at now ......

for bearings, i have some "speed" lubes for the bass guys, but they don't get used much. i'm pretty much exclusively using corrosion x, but i keep it in a reel x bottle. that's been a point of some confusion. i started at the recommendation of my local tackle shop. it's worked well enough, so i've seen no need to change. the reel x is $5 for a tiny bottle, the corrosion x is $17 for a big trigger spray bottle. the math is easy.

for drag grease, i just switched to cal's drag grease and i'm very happy with it. i had purchased 6 pounds of shimano drag grease late last year and finally ran out. cal's grease is $24 per pound, shimano's is $80. the math is pretty easy here as well.

cal's grease also works great for the screw holes and other non-exposed metal surfaces. i am still using yamaha engine grease. there are four reasons here. first, i was told way back by my yamaha dealer that this grease had excellent salt water resistance. i've never questioned that claim but it seems to have held up. two, it's available in cartridges for mini-grease guns. you've seen my grease gun before. it's a life saver. three, it's dirt cheap, at i think $5 for a one pound tub or $7 for a set of three mini-grease gun cartridges. and forth, the stuff says blue forever. i can open up a reel five years down the line and see that i've been there before. that helps me quite a bit, because i like to know if a reel comes back with a problem.

and then there was my secret sauce. i was goofing around with a mix of corrosion x and shimano drag grease for a while. i was looking for a lube that i could use in spool bearings. the goal was more protection than simple corrosion x, and more spin than heavy grease. i got my best results from a mix of 1 part shimano teflon grease and 5 parts corrosion x. even these results were disappointing, so i gave up. i've come to the conclusion that bearings will simply not last forever. if i want a reel to cast, i leave the bearing open and lubed with corrosion x. if the reel is used for trolling only, then i pack the bearings with grease and reinstall the shields or seals. it's one way or the other.

hope this helps. alan