I grabbed an old fishing pole off my parent’s back porch (covered) a few months ago. It’s got a zebco 33 from the 90s on it. Still works, but needs a good cleaning and fresh lube. I sprayed the gears with WD40. Tomorrow I’ll have access to an ultrasonic. I’m debating between cleaning it in water or ethanol. I’m not trying to do a fancy restoration, just want to make it functional. Any advice?

Use something besides WD-40. Those old 33s were tough but I bought a new one for my nephew last year and it was junk.

I know the new stuff is crap.

I've worn out some honey holes with that old joker. A 33 ain't rocket science........just lube it and go.

An ultrasonic with plain parts cleaner is what I use on all of my reels. Every one of my reels work better than they do new because I mod the piss out of them lol

WD 40 then add vasoline to the gears and it will work for 30 more years.lol

Thing I noticed messing around with my wife’s Zebcos is they have a slow gear ratio. You ain’t bringing nothing in fast with em.

All set.

Easy cleaning with a strong solvent. You dont want to mess up the stickers on it.

Nice old reel! I grew up on those. Don’t forget to flip on the bait clicker if you really want to catch fish. 🤣

Found this one at my Grandpa's. He passed about 30 years ago. Never been opened.

Thats sweet right there Oltimer!

My first Zebco was a 202 & little pistol grip rod. It came from the green stamp store on Quintard in Anniston. Man that was like having 2 Christmas in the same year!

I have several of the ol 33's, even have my first zebco 600.

That's all we used 30-40 years ago fishing for flounder on Dauphin Island. I still have a dozen of them.

Have a buddy that still uses a few for inshore fishing

I remember zebco 33 hawgs was the bees knees for catfishing when i was a kid!

Yep

Now y'all got me bidding on ebay trying to re-live my childhood.

That's gotta be worth some big $ to a collector. I still fish with a couple 33's. They are great for panfishing with light baits but the retrieve ratio is really slow.