Daiwa Magseal Line Roller Servicing

I make no claims that I’ve done this correctly but Daiwa does their best to prevent the owners of the Magseal reels from doing their own service and maintenance… There aren’t any official support documents for what I would consider routine maintenance and they won’t even sell the magseal oil or the tool to remove the monocoque side plates. Their expectation is that you have to have an authorized service center perform any maintenance. That’s my main gripe with Daiwa since I always service my own reels…
I figure I can’t really do any damage doing this myself (assuming I get it all reassembled correctly) using a generic ferrofluid instead of the official Magseal oil. Even if reassembled with no magseal oil it’s still just like any other ball bearing reel and will function the same, just minus the extra layer of water protection the magseal provides. In this instance I’m not even dealing with the main Magseal over the clutch and main shaft.
I was just getting a scratchy sound from the line roller while the rest of the reel still feels and is performing like new. I figured this would be a good opportunity to take a look at the magseal components and function in the easy to access line roller assembly.
I just got some generic Ferrofluid like they use in speaker assemblies. Time will tell whether it works as well as the official Daiwa unobtanium oil. My first attempt at applying the Magnetic oil started out fine and went on perfectly for the first side of the assembly. Then I rushed doing the other side and made a mess when I let a whole drop out of the tube instead of going slow with a monofilament applicator. Oh well, still came out fine from what I can tell. When the other three need service I’ll know better and it will be easier now that I’ve done it once. When the main portion of the reel needs serviced I have a side-plate removal tool and the main Magseal around the clutch and main shaft will be far easier to clean and apply the ferrofluid.