fishin dude. be sure to use a bio-degradable cleaner and hot water. Thisis what we do in our shop,others may use other products, but we have found it best to stay away from any chemicals. May not show up now, but can later. Here is what we have found to be pretty true- grease the gears-oil the bearings.
remember on the bearings, after cleaning, one drop of oil....too much oil willjust cause the internal balls of bearing to get boged down in the oil and they cannot run freely around the raceway. go to my website and I have a article"conniek's Reel tips and techniques" that has some very ggood information for you as well. If you need some more help,
send mean e mail and we'll be glad to help you. Congrats on doing your own reels.

I keep reading about using Slick 50 to lub reels???????

Never, never use a petroleum-based lube on reels! It'll eat your nylon gears.

Brent, I hate to break it to you, but Southwestern won't touch your BPS reels. They don't have schematics or parts. I know them personally, and I've tried to press Shane to clean one several times (it's just a way to bug him anymore!) and he won't touch it. If he breaks or loses a part, he can't replace it.

That is what I have been doing except I use grease on the one-way bearing to hold the needles in place. It seems to work quite well for me.

I guess I that when they break or stop working, it's time to upgrade to shimano!

While they start out working fine, alot of the parts in those reels are not as high quality as in the name brands. The bearings are lower quality, the gears aren't as hard, the frame metal isn't the same alloy. About the only part that seems to be as good as the rest is the spool shaft. They are very hard. I have removed and reinstalled the pin that engages the drive gear (and holds the middle bearing on the spool shaft) on my JM signature reels, and it didn't leave a mark on the spool shaft.

BTW, when I called BPS to order the pin, they said it isn't available. When I asked what they did when it was damaged removing the spool bearing, they said they don't remove the spool bearing. In fact, they don't clean ANY BEARINGS. If a bearing needs cleaning, they replace it. If the center bearing on a spool needs cleaning, they replace the spool. I just used a Daiwa pin. I have maintained my reels pretty well. I just cleaned and lubed one of the JM signature reels, and it stills sounds like a grinder compared to the Chronarch I cleaned and lubed the same day.

Interesting, very interesting...I like my JM a lot, and thought of buying more.

However, I'm going to go a head & pick up some Diawas to complement my Shimano's. A solid one...two...punch.

I'm going to definitely check out the website. Thanks for all the info. Good post.

I like being able to call Shimano's 800 number give them my part numbers and have the part I need in less than a week. Plus reasonable shipping charges---just ordered 5 or 6 parts and total bill was less than $8.

Me, too. I bought about a dozen parts last week and they were less than $10. I picked mine up at Southwestern Parts and Service.

Fishin Dude, in fairness the JM is still smooth and casts a mile. But when you spin the spool, you can hear metallic sounds. And it is absolutely clean inside. I cleaned all three spool bearings twice, and used Reel Butter on each one. I think the bearings are just cheap, and they are getting sloppy. That is probably why BPS just changes them instead of cleaning them.