I have a Shimano Crysalis reel. I have had it for a long time and it has been great for me. However now it is making a lot of noise so I wanted to clean it especially the bearings. However, when I try to loosen the plate to get to the spool I can loosen the screws as far as they will go but I cant get anything to come loose. Is there a trick to cleaning this reel?

Does anyone know how to get to the bearings? I can not figure out how to take the back plate off.

I�ve only worked on a couple of Calais I thought they had a funny twist to get the side cover off. As to the bearings if your just trying to clean the casting bearings you have one in the tension knob and one in the side cover that are both held in place with a small clip called a bearing retainer. There is also one in the clutch cam that holds another bearing but this bearing supports the pinion gear. As for cleaning the bearings there are several ways. You can clean them with alcohol, lighter fluid, simple green (flush bearing after using this) and my favorite brake cleaner. You could simple swirl the bearings in a jar (with the cleaner) use a bearing blaster�.better��or use an ultrasonic cleaner��the best.

That is an old reel from the mid 90's. YOu should have some thumbscrews on the handle side. Loosen those until they come all the way out. Then your opposite side plate should come straight out. There is probably a single bearing in that reel in that side plate and one on the spool. I can't remember but that should be it. There is no bearing under the cast control, only a premolded in bushing that is not removable.

You may have to pry a bit on the sideplate to get it off after all this time. Try gripping and twisting on the frame while lightly prying to get it loose. The spool/Pinion bearing-Bushing is probably stuck to the frame.

That reel was only around 40 bucks when it was new and does not have an abundance of bearings like modern reels do. If the oise is on the cast then it is bearings, on the retrieve then it is the gears.