About bearings.............

[Adam Hoelper]

Ok this subject comes up here and other boards all the time.  I was going to make a at length post on this, but I figure if I'm going to go to all this effort I might as well post it here and make an article about it. 

So here is my take, from years of skate boarding as a kid and roller hockey as an adult.

ABEC bearing are rated according to the ABEC system (Annular Bearing Engineering Council).  It is not a regulated system with industry testing or and other type of certification.  Basically you need to buy bearings from a trusted source such as NWS, Timkin, RBC, Swiss, and Torrington as well as many other.

Rating of bearings is typically done by the tried and true noise test.  This test is based on the assumption that noise is created by friction and friction reduces spin time.  Basic rating is ABEC 1-9 in odd numbers with ABEC 1 bearings being the loudest and 9 being the quietest.  My typical application for bearings was simple 1's and 3's in the skate board, and 7's and 9's in the hockey skates. 
Now the higher the rating the more maintenance is involved in keeping them running in peak performance.  When you receive your bearings they should be packed in grease.  Why?  Well in this modern age everything is shipped on planes, and something coming from CA might just make a stop in At. Paul.  That means that your clean bearing will be exposed to humidity, condensation and moisture.  If you don’t believe how quickly metal can corrode just look under your car seats for loose change and see if it bright and shiny.  Small pits in the bearings surface result in increased friction and lose of performance.  Long story short don’t be an Islander, sorry I meant lazy.

What to do with your new or old bearings?
The first thing you want to do is remove the grease from the balls and the race (collectively known as a bearing).  Some people will tell you to use gasoline, kerosene or other hydrocarbons, don’t!  Hydrocarbons are great for cleaning rust off of metal and will also score the highly polished finish of high quality bearings.  For a good cleaning use a quality gun cleaning solvent, if its safe to clean a $40,000 shotgun you can bet its safe to clean a $90.00 set of ABEC 9's.

Alright so you have your cleaner what next?  Take your bearings and lay them flat on several paper towels, then spray them with the cleaner.  Now take your thumb and push the clean into the bearing and out the other side.  Move the bearing to a clean part of the towel and continue until the only thing coming out it clean cleaning fluid.

Next step is to remove the cleaning fluid as it will just break down and oil you place into it.  I use 90% iso alcohol and proceed to push the alcohol through the same way you push the cleaning fluid through.

Your final step it to take a light machine oil, I use abel oil but a 3-in-1 sewing machine oil works well to.  Place the oil on the top of the bearing and push it in with your thumb, this process is called packing a bearing.  Once clean oil comes out of your bearing you will need to wipe off the excess oil from both sides.  Place the bearings in the reel and spin off the excess oil, remove bearings, wipe clean and repeat until oil no longer spins out.


I will clean my bearings later this week and take pictures of the process for you and make this a article.

For now let me leave you with this.  If you want the be the best angler you can be then don’t settle for half ass anything.  Do your best in preparing your equipment and you will catch more fish and enjoy your time on the water more.

And remember

Ignorance is not a crime, but letting someone stay ignorant should be!!!

[Linescreamer!]

One thing I would add.  Bearings are not always open and can't be cleaned and lubricated.  Some are sealed and can only be replaced when they stop performing up to your expectation.

[Adam Hoelper]

One thing I would add.  Bearings are not always open and can't be cleaned and lubricated.  Some are sealed and can only be replaced when they stop performing up to your expectation.

Bearings arent sealed as in a zip lock bag, they are sheilded but called sealed.  A sealed bearing would exlode from the expansion of lubrication

[Coldsteel]

i followed your instructions step by step on my new mykiss2 which was kinda sluggish from the factory well let me just say that i worked out great. I sware they must pack them things with a petroleum jelly or something it took a while of pushing and spinning to get all the junk out but when it was gone boy do they spin like nothing else.

Thanks for the post ditch.

[Adam Hoelper]

i followed your instructions step by step on my new mykiss2 which was kinda sluggish from the factory well let me just say that i worked out great. I sware they must pack them things with a petroleum jelly or something it took a while of pushing and spinning to get all the junk out but when it was gone boy do they spin like nothing else.

Thanks for the post ditch.

Very cool.  Im glad that I can help somewhat around here

[AKFLY]

Great Info !

Look forward to the pics !

[RacinRay]

Ditch,been following this thread for a while and was wondering if you got the pics up for the cleaning article?Also what about the procedure for ...YIKES!!...an Islander,being the bearings are locktited in.Mine spins as is, great low startup and all,ran a makeshift fan setup on it and laid it in front of a box fan for 1 1/2 days after I bought it to give it a good breaking in and what a difference that made!..Ray

[Adam Hoelper]

Ditch,been following this thread for a while and was wondering if you got the pics up for the cleaning article?Also what about the procedure for ...YIKES!!...an Islander,being the bearings are locktited in.Mine spins as is, great low startup and all,ran a makeshift fan setup on it and laid it in front of a box fan for 1 1/2 days after I bought it to give it a good breaking in and what a difference that made!..Ray

Bearing loctited in.  HMMM   Bad karma if you ask me, as you need heat to remove loctite.  Pics, no not yet the bob James has not needed a cleaning for the new bearings.

It all sounds complicated but it really isnt.  I was just overly thourogh about explaining it.  Its really 30 mins infront of the TV working during commercials.

A word about your islander.  I know you think its great but what are you comparing it to?  To give you clarity rig up your rod and place 1 BB on the line, real it up to the tip top and see what happens.  Does it move?  Most likely not, as the island is to heavy to start.  Rule of thumb on quality reels (yes I actually think the islander is one of them) is that the longer it spins the higher start up inertia is needed.

[Adam Hoelper]

maybe this helps a little, just subsitute the cleaners for grease and the gloved hand for a clean rag

[Adam Hoelper]

So I cleaned my bearings today.  Prior to the cleaning I was ale to have the reel spin for 1min and 15 secs, after the cleaning It spins 3 min and 35 secs.

Remember that spinning a reel is not a good judge of a reels preformance however it is a good judge of improvments that are done to the reel in comparision to the same reel.

[Bunker Breath]

You could never get a job working a roulette wheel...it would take all damn night just to get the ball to drop!

[Chromedome]

Just cleaned the bearings in the matrix and the spahr...WOW!!! The Startup in the Spahr is a lil better(it was great already), but their is a HUGE difference in the matrix.  I HIGHLY reccomend that anyone that has a matrix, give the bearings a bath and add a lil' bit of oil....

[RacinRay]

Ditch,had the reel out fishing yesterday and today cleaning the gunkoff it I tried the1 BB shot only test and was pleasantly suprised that it
fell smoothly and easily from  its own startup and no help to the floor!Guess my breaking in the islander with the fan must have worked,was really not too sure it would do it but it actually made it look easy....Guess I got one of them there good ones.LOL.Ray

[Adam Hoelper]

Ditch,had the reel out fishing yesterday and today cleaning the gunkoff it I tried the1 BB shot only test and was pleasantly suprised that it
fell smoothly and easily from  its own startup and no help to the floor!Guess my breaking in the islander with the fan must have worked,was really not too sure it would do it but it actually made it look easy....Guess I got one of them there good ones.LOL.Ray

Good im glad it worked for you, but just to put it in context, the BJ spins with just the weight of the line and no lead

[Linescreamer!]

Just cleaned the bearings in the matrix and the spahr...WOW!!! The Startup in the Spahr is a lil better(it was great already), but their is a HUGE difference in the matrix.  I HIGHLY reccomend that anyone that has a matrix, give the bearings a bath and add a lil' bit of oil....

I understand what you are reffering to when cleaning a pin and improving start up.  However, the Matrix has sealed bearings (no open races where you can view the actual balls), so cleaning that reel will largly be effected by the dirt that works it's way into the case and shaft area.  Do most pins have open bearings where you can wash out the lubricant completely and repack them?