ABU-Garcia Ultra Mags

[Paul Roberts]

A few decades ago now I picked up a couple of ABU-Garcia Ultra Mags, an UM II at a yard sale (for $5!), and an UM XL Plus at a flea market (for $6!). Thought I would share my servicing of them.

The Ultra Mag II is a 1982 model, the year that ABU-Garcia introduced magnetic cast control to the burgeoning American bass fishing world. I've read that this feature was actually first released in Europe in 1980, receiving an engineering award in Germany that year. The UM II is a standard spool model while the UM I has a narrow spool. The UM XL Plus is a 1984 narrow spool model. The "XL" refers to the quick change spool and the "Plus" refers to the Fast Cast (thumb bar FS release). The spools on the '82 UM's can be removed quickly as well, having a removable tailplate. The UM's also feature internally adjustable magnetics -in addition to the external adjustment dial- accessible via the removable tailplates. Integral screws in the I and II, and the screw off cap on the XL, allow this work to be accomplished out on the water without fear of losing screws.

Both reels shown in this tutorial are totally stock, except for: a pair of carbon fiber drag washers and an extra pair of magnets in the UM II. Metal to metal contact areas in both reels were polished with Flitz and a Dremel.

At first look, the internals on these can be somewhat intimidating. Turns out they're not difficult reels to reassemble, but there are a fair number of parts to keep track of. Photos along the way and a schematic can be helpful in places. I was actually impressed at how easily the "layers" could be reassembled. With the small springs and tiny clips, I played it safe by using a magnetized screwdriver and even adding a stack of rare earth magnets to the shaft of the screwdriver.

This post is something of a tutorial, but I did not photo every step. Instead I'm sharing my reference photos, taken to remember the order parts go. I recorded the order of washers, the location of shims, the orientation of gears and springs, and the more complex mechanisms such as the freespool and the levelwind. Hope these help, in addition to your own photos, if you decide to dig into one of these original magnetic ABU's.

These reels both use the ABU Ultra Cast spool design (the predecessor to the newer "Ultracast" spool design), in which the spool shaft is independent of the spool itself. This is somewhat unique in bait casting reels, although not entirely a new concept as both JA Coxe ("Cross-Bolt") and Shakespeare ("Tru-Axis") used it in some of their direct drive reels.

Finally, the magnet arrays are adjustable in the Ultra Mags, via a screw that raises or lowers the spring loaded array, increasing or decreasing the magnetic effect. I standardized the setting by zeroing the dial on the tailplate, then tightening the adjustment screw until snug. This seemed to make the array plate un-level; Backing off a tiny bit leveled it. I also added a pair of rare earth magnets to the array plate as an experiment. Final adjustment will be done during a casting session.

When my UM II was first reassembled, I found the levelwind line guide would not free-float as it was designed to do. Opening her back up revealed that I'd forgot to place the freespool to levelwind linkage rod between the two studs that line it up with the rotating plastic levelwind block that rolls the line guide hold over, freeing the guide during a cast. Easier thing to miss than describe! See photo.

The second to last photo is of the UM XL Plus. It's essentially the same animal inside as the UM II. (In fact, it's pretty much the same animal the ABU round reels of the same time period). The "Flippin' Switch" feature, that provides freespool only as long as the thumb bar is depressed, is simply a plastic block that stops the full engagement of the freespool mechanism.
Again, hope this post helps or encourages some who have or find one of these nice reels collecting dust somewhere. I've caught a lot of fish on mine.

Images:
UM II Schematic
Lotsa parts ready to reassemble
Magnetized screwdriver
Gear post washer stack (beneath drag star)
Ultra Cast spool and shaft
Face side spool stack
Tail side spool stack
Guts
Anti-reverse dog orientation
Small shim at base of main gear shaft
Polishing
Freespool mechanism
Freespool pinion dog retainer orientation
Pinion collar (goes onto dog, slots first)
Main gears orientation
Levelwind worm gear at tail side
Magnetic adjusting screw (Note: added magnets)
Correct freespool to levelwind linkage rod location
UM XL Plus guts
FINI!

[xjchad]

These are cool reels!
Pretty sure Gfish is a fan of these 

[JasonGotaProblem]

Great reels I have the ultra mag xl plus and the XL V. Both very cool. The small one is still on the to do list.

[Gfish]

Yeah, cool. I always liked that long skinny rod that goes most of the way across the brake plate and pushes the levelwinder back into a "pre-lock" position. Looks kinda stupid and cheap, like you'ed see on a low-end reel, but never failed on my XL plus or my XL V. Wish they'ed come out with a modern version of these, maybe with aluminum side plates.

[Paul Roberts]

Yeah, it appears that plastic parts are ok in certain low stress areas. The nylon gears that activate the LW have held up too.

[foakes]

Here are a couple of the harder to find assemblies for that Ultra-Mag.

Just happened to recognize them as I was sorting the ABU parts.

Best, Fred

[Paul Roberts]

Hi, Fred. Yes, that's it. 975392 is shown on all the Ultra Mag schematics I've looked at.

[Paul Roberts]

UMag doing its thing, quite well.

[Swami805]

Chunky!

[Paul Roberts]

That there is a lap full of bass! )

[Gfish]

Nice "bucketmouth"! What'ed that dude bite?
 I really like the XL V(5) I have, about a 3/0 size reel. And definitely the UL XL plus. Now after all these years I know what the "XL" stands for. One thing I disliked was the ball bearing on the tail-plate; fixed in a  seemingly weak graphite cup. I had problems with alignment and friction on the XL V, but the XL plus is probably small enough, and low stress enough not to have issues.

[Paul Roberts]

Soft jerk, lightly belly weighted. Killer wobble on the fall.

This is one smooth, easy casting reel. In fact, it may be the smoothest caster I own. I bought it years ago at a flea market for 6 bucks. Finally got around to spit polishing the important inside stuff. My word it casts. Carbontex washers too. This bass tested them a bit.

[Paul Roberts]

Some additions: My UMag II doing its thing as a heavy cover "frogging" reel. 19" and 21" (4 and 5lb) "pad crashers!". The exclamation mark is appropriate!

[Gfish]

Great write-up! And fish pictures to boot! That's how you do it.

[ExcessiveAngler]

Yes, these are quite old and hard to find any more, especially even reasonably priced!
Used to be a lot of them around, before "the craze happened" and everything went sky high through the roof!!!
These are very sought after, across the pond, for tournament casting, super light leads, particularly the 18 gram!
They change the spools out on these, with ones that are all ported-out, to the max!
Many cool videos on YouTube, of these reels, on 13 foot tournament rods lol!
My oldest brother, had piles of these things when I was a kid, he was a freshwater tournament fisherman! So, these bring back very fond memories! But couldn't really learn the baitcasters, at 7/8 years old, and he was very short on patience, unfortunately!
He would tell me to shut up, and be lucky that I was using a spinning reel, or even fishing with him at all, cocky, sucker lol!