Abu Garcia Ambassadeur Record no. 60 rebuild
 

TT Description: Reel maintenance guru, Alan Tani decides to rebuild and re-lube an Abu-Garcia Record reel. Step by step he breaks the reel apart to access all the key lubrication points, then proceeds to put it back together in this maintenance tutorial.

Alan: Every once in a while I get something new. That was the case here. This box arrived from Alaska. Hmmmm, carbon matrix drags? I wonder what this is all about?

I pulled it out of the box and the first thing I noticed was the weight. It's heavy! Much heavier that a normal Ambassaduer. I ran into the house and grabbed my camera. I've done an Ambassaduer post already, but I knew this one would be different.

This one had a very nice live bait handle. The levelwind assembly is basically the same as all the other Ambassaduers. I fix alot of Penn levelwind assemblies, but not many Abu's.

The spool design was interesting as well. I'm not quite sure why it would be beveled like this.

The left side plate should not be removed. Just back out one left side plate screw (key #199) at a time, grease the hole, zip the screw back in, and move on to the next one.

Back out the three right side plate screws (no key #), remove the right side plate assembly and the spool.

Add a little Corrosion X to the left side plate bearing (key #5230), the idler gear (key #1117079), the worm gear (key #5205), and the click plate assembly (key #12642).

Now for the spool. Remove the spool shaft (key #1117122).

Lube the right spool bearing.

Pull the white nylon sprocket gear (key #23403) and lube the left spool bushing (key #19843). When I first saw this, I thought... HEY, WHAT'S THIS!!!!!! SOME CHEAPSKATE PUT A BRASS BUSHING INSIDE INSTEAD OF A BEARING!!!!!! WHAT A BUNCH OF CROOKS!!!!! Well, it turns out that they put a bushing here for a reason, but I'm still not sure why. I think a bearing works here as well, so in goes a bearing.

I have whole box full of extra bearings, so I'll just switch it out and lube this bearing with Corrosion X as well.

And back into the frame it goes.

Now for the right side plate. Remove the set screw (key #14868) and retaining collar (key #20944).

Remove the handle nut (key #5327).

Remove the C-clip.

Remove the handle (key #1117097), the spring (key #5115), the star (key #1117091) and both spring washers (key #5131) and line everything up.