Need Advise Flush Sandy Reel

I dragged my Okuma "Sea Devil" through the sand yesterday.  I've rinsed it and soaked it and everything now turns that is supposed to turn, but it makes a crunchy sound.

Never worked on this type of gear before (total rookie angler).  I assume the trick is to remove the cover opposite from the handle side and rinse...  I don't have the right sized allen wrench which I will obtain today.

Are there any special techniques or pitfalls I should be aware of?  If you know a previous thread or post, please send me there.  I tried searching but didn't get anywhere.

Thanks

Take a look on this site: http://alantani.com/

see if you can find your reel...and/or read the general procedures section.

AlanTani is THE master reel guy....

THX for the quick reply Steve!

This happened to me once.

I took the reel all apart, cleaned everything...then put all the pieces in a box & bought a replacement reel from mako1 .

Now I stow my reels before dealing with surf.

Thanks Piscean, I'm definitely working the replacement angle as well.  I'm surprised you couldn't put it back together... I thought you 'dooners could fix anything

Unfortunately my surf kayak has no hatches for stowing below deck.  I suppose getting a drybag and putting the reel in it solves that problem.  Thanks for the ideas.

whatever you do, DON'T REEL IT ANYMORE!!!!!

......until you've taken it apart rinsed, dried and blowed out.

may as well replace the drag washers once it's broke down.

Allen

Unfortunately my surf kayak has no hatches for stowing below deck.  I suppose getting a drybag and putting the reel in it solves that problem. 

 Yep, before I got a yak with a center hatch or a plano marine box, I used a small dry bag for the reels. I found the plano box to be a huge upgrade over the milk crate. Put some rod tubes on it & a couple of pad eyes for attachment to the kayak & you are set with (mostly) water proof & sand proof storage.

Good advise Allen and Piscean.  I'm gonna get another rig so I can have at least one working while trying to maintain the other.

Being a rookie angler and a complete virgin tearing down a conventional reel, I took the combined advise of Allen, Piscean and Alan Tani.  Fortunately, my Okuma Sea Devil reel (sold as a rod/reel combo for $100 at Outdoor World) is the cheaper version of the Okuma Convector CV 30L which as luck would have it, Alan documented the uber-detailed step-by-step tear-down, maintenance and rebuild:

http://alantani.com/index.php?topic=774.0

Alan is the Man for Reels!     

However, following Piscean's story of his reel in a box and my sausage-fingered kook-skilz, I only took off the two cover plates and douched the exposed mechanisms with a high-pressure sprayer.  Taking part of Allen "Lets Go Fishing" Bushnell's advice, I ran the hair dryer after the flushing.  Then I lightly lubed the exposed bearings and gears and carefully re-assembled the reel.  Even for such a simple job, Alan Tani's superb guide led past a couple potential mistakes if I had cowboyed the job.

It now works normally without any sand grinding.  I am sure that a full and complete tear-down is in order before use, but I wanted at least to get it to 95% asap.  When I have a good long evening available, I will do the complete teardown and maintenance cycle.

This site is fantastic.  Rock solid advise and great group of folks.

Thanks