Was given a few reels, help me do some maintenance/upgrades.

[SevenYearsDown]

hello all, decided to sign up after lurking around the forums. A coworker of mine gave me some reels that he has had for a while. All of them are bait casters and I am more of a spinner reel guy but i decided to give these a try. They are:

 

Shimano Scorpion 1500

Shimano Bantam Scorpion 2000

Abu Amabassadeur 4600 C4

Abu Ambassadeur 4600 C4 Mag

 

 

From quick googling, these seem pretty decent reels. Can any of you point me to resources (articles, forum posts, videos) on how to do maintenance on these? I did find some on youtube, but I am not the most tech savvy so I thought I would ask here. Also, I like tinkering and upgrading stuff (can't stop with my guitars), so what upgrades would be good for these? As it is they function well, I have only tried the Abu 4600 Mag and Scorpion 1500 in the water and they cast and retrieve well. Thank you.

[new2BC4bass]

Copy and paste this on your favorite search engine:  casting reel maintenance on youtube   Quite a bit will come up for your entertainment pleasure.  Even with "casting" in the search a lot comes up for spinning reels as well.

 

Pick up a copy of Fishing Reel 101 Care and Maintenance.  Contains quite a few pictures.

 

You were given some nice reels.  All will benefit from a good cleaning and proper lubing.  There used to be a thread on another forum (about 6 pages long) with many posts giving options for upgrading Abu round reels.  EDIT:  And where to find spare parts.

[CrankFate]

Www.alantani.com

 

Check out the tutorials section.

[Green Hornet]

Get some quality reel oil and reel grease.  Use the oil sparingly as a little goes a long way on bearings.  Use the grease on gears, that includes cogs and the levelwind worm gear.

[MN Fisher]

8 minutes ago, Green Hornet said:

Get some quality reel oil and reel grease.  Use the oil sparingly as a little goes a long way on bearings.  Use the grease on gears, that includes cogs and the levelwind worm gear.

If you're willing to spend a little more - the only grease I use on my reels is White Lithium. That's what I've been using since I bought them and with 2 Spinning reels closing on 40 years old and a Baitcaster that's 20+ - and all of them working like new - I think I'm doing something right.

[Green Hornet]

I'll give it a try.  Thanks for the tip.

[redmeansdistortion]

I've modified quite a few Abu reels so I'll lay out what I use.  First and foremost, a cleaning and re-lube will make them cast better than new, even without additional bearings.  Abu has a habit of using peanut butter all over everything, even the level wind.  This slows them down a great deal and gives them a reputation that they can't cast sub 1oz baits effectively.  A correctly lubricated Swedish Abu round reel with an oiled worm gear will be able to cast 1/4oz baits pretty easy, even lighter when paired with the correct rod.  A greased worm slows the whole thing down.  Picture it like driving your car through a foot of snow versus dry pavement.

 

To begin, soak all parts (except ball bearings and drag washers) in a mix of Dawn and hot water to break up the old lubricants. An hour should be good enough, but in a severely neglected reel, you may wish to let it sit overnight.  After soaking, scrub them with an old toothbrush and rinse in cold water, then pat dry. Optionally, you can get a cheap ultrasonic cleaner and run a mix of 50/50 water/Simple Green. That makes the process much faster.

 

For grease, I use Yamaha blue marine grease, marketed as Yamalube.  You can get a 12oz tube for ~$10, cheaper and better than the flavor of the month reel grease.  It's waterproof, adheres to metal surfaces, and doesn't wear away like the PTFE grease packaged with many reels.  The only thing that removes it is your cleaning process.  It's simple to remove with Simple Green or Zippo fluid, but under normal working conditions, it stays put.  Use this between any areas with metal to metal contact, such as the clutch arm and linkage, a dab in the pinion yoke, and a dab on the pinion gear where it makes contact with the main gear.  You should also brush on a light coating on the brake plate where those aforementioned parts and drag stack reside.

 

2nd, drag grease.  I use Cal's tan grease on my bass reels and Cal's purple on my steelhead reels.  Cal's purple is for cold weather and I fish steelhead in cold weather, so this helps a good amount.  Use this on Carbontex washers.  The Teflon washers used in older Abu reels don't benefit, but it's a good idea to upgrade Teflon washers to Carbontex anyway.

 

On the oil end, I use TSI-321.  This is a fantastic low viscosity oil that adheres to surfaces and stays put for a long while.  Use this in your anti-reverse bearing, ball bearing, level wind.  To lube the IAR bearing, moisten a Q-tip with oil and rub it around a few times.  Use 1 drop of oil per ball bearing, and two drops in the level wind.

 

You'll want an old pill bottle or two and a bottle of Zippo fluid, use this to clean your bearings.  Zippo fluid leaves no residue behind and evaporates quickly.  Soak them about 10 minutes and shake from time to time.  Let them air dry and give them a spin on the tip of a pencil to check.  If they still seem a little sticky, repeat the cleaning process.  If they fail the second cleaning, replace them.  You can also use Zippo fluid to clean the Teflon/Carbontex drag washers.  Just get a cloth damp and wipe the old grime away.  Use this same method to clean the brake plate.

 

If you have any other questions, feel free to PM me

 

 

[J Francho]

Acetone leaves less residue behind than naphtha (lighter fluid).  I soak in glass baby food or jelly jars.  TSI 321 is excellent high speed oil, as is Oust Metol.  Both are a little pricey.  The average angler can do quite well with Shimano Bantam oil.  For grease, I use Cal's and Cal's purple.  Shimano Permalub is pretty good too.  I used to be able to get a gold lithium grease, but that source dried up.  It was great on everything other than drags.  If you can find it, Perfect Solution is a great, super fast acting degreaser.  You might have to buy it online.  I cleared out my local Lowe's before they stopped carrying it.  Get yourself a muffin pan to keep track of the parts, and put sub assemblies into each compartment.  A nice set of Wiha tools goes a long way, though you can use tools from the local hardware store.  You need 1/8 slot head, #0 and #1 Phillips head, and an 11mm (someone double check that size, please!) nut driver.  A spool pin remover is nice to have, but not 100% necessary, if you're okay with removing the line on the reel.  Other than that, the main upgrade I always do to every reel is replacing drag washers with Carbontex from Smooth Drags.  They carry many of the supplies you need, as well replacement bearings, if needed.  Good luck!

 

[redmeansdistortion]

I didn't know that about Acetone, I'll have to try that next time I break my reels down.  Does it evaporate pretty quick?

[J Francho]

Not bad.  I cover the jars.  Get the 100% pure acetone from a beauty supply store. 

[redmeansdistortion]

1 minute ago, J Francho said:

Not bad.  I cover the jars.  Get the 100% pure acetone from a beauty supply store. 

Will do, thanks for the tip!

[J Francho]

No problem - I got clued in by one of the Hawgtech guys on here, years ago.  Before that, I used naphtha.

[NYWayfarer]

15 minutes ago, J Francho said:

 Get yourself a muffin pan to keep track of the parts, and put sub assemblies into each compartment. 

My wife saw me "borrowing" one of her muffin pans for this purpose. I almost got a frying pan applied to the head instead. I  learned my reflexes are still quite good at my age.

[J Francho]

Dude, they're like $6.  Get your own!

[Junger]

10 minutes ago, J Francho said:

Dude, they're like $6.  Get your own!

Do you live on Drury Lane???

[J Francho]

Yes.

 

 

[WRB]

Acetone is a keyton solvent and can un zip some polymers like Nylon, Teflon and  metal isn't an issue. Use solvents like acetone in a well ventilated area away from any flames, like a hot water heater etc. The older Ambassador reel may have Nylon level wind bushings and gears, keep any plastic parts away from acetone unless you know they are Teflon. Clean Nylon with alcohol to be safe.

Any reel lube grease works for gears, light low viscosity reel oils works good for the legacy Ambassadors. I use BreakFree CLP for general lube of level wind worm gear and spool bearings after cleaning with solvents. 

Tom

[J Francho]

Acetone is strictly for degreasing and cleaning metal bearings.  No rubber or plastic should ever go into acetone.

[SevenYearsDown]

Thank you all for the tips! Was also going to ask what tools are needed but you covered it, this is such an awesome resource. 

 

BTW is anyone familiar with the shimano bantam 2000? I'm not sure it even has a brake adjustment, still works pretty well. 

 

 

 

 

It flips open. 

[NYWayfarer]

On ‎1‎/‎11‎/‎2019 at 3:02 PM, J Francho said:

Dude, they're like $6.  Get your own!

I have been using the bottom half of an egg carton since then. Best of all it's free.

[J Francho]

My cat would send an egg carton flying!  Plus, back when I had the reel business, I had ten pans going.  I could Saran Wrap them so parts didn't escape.  Also kept the cat out them.