patience paid off, Cardinal 4

[steelfish]

This is a reel that I dont need it but wanted it 
pretty sure it wont see much action on this latitudes of north Baja but I will take it with me for fun on the shore with my 10ft and 13ft Light salmon rods from time to time, it will take the place of my shimano sonora 2500 for those UL/L duties, it has a bit more line capacity then my Abu cardinal S30 and almost the same than my Shimano Sonora 4000FA, to be honest I thought the reel was going to be smaller than actually is and Im good with that because anything smaller than this is pretty difficult to use on my zone for saltwater use, as many might know, no freshwater fishing over here in a range of 150 miles or more.

the reel is not a collector item or shelf queen material and Im good with that, because I want to put it on use, it has some discolored zones on the frame and few tiny nicks on the spool, other than that its in great condition, feels pretty smooth and freely when turning the handle, it might need a clean job and marine grease but thats it, paint in the numbers and lettering have not discolored zones which is nice and make it look cleaner.
btw the line lay is superb

[foakes]

Looks great, Alex —-

Get an aluminum spool from Les Shaw or Jimmy Daiwa.

3's seldom break, 6's & 7's already have aluminum spools.

4's just break on their own, or when barely tapped, or when older, or when the mono has been on the spool too long in storage.  Or whenever they want to with no warning.

Best, Fred

[steelfish]

Looks great, Alex —-

Get an aluminum spool from Les Shaw or Jimmy Daiwa.
Best, Fred

thanks Fred for the recommedation, I will look for the aluminum spool after the holidays, I have seen some on Ebay already
I was also thinking to try to install a more comfy knob on the handle, something like the round light perforated aluminum knobs from Gomexus but first I want to tried as is.

[Midway Tommy]

Looks like you got a pretty nice example, Alex!  I think you'll like it.

[Gfish]

Looks like you got a pretty nice example, Alex!  I think you'll like it.

Yeah, and you're right, the line lay looks great!

[jgp12000]

Looks good from my house!

[steelfish]

Looks like you got a pretty nice example, Alex!  I think you'll like it.

thanks Tommy, feels like a nice toy, all metal and really, considering all the years since it being produced only means the good quality used on those reels

[DougK]

excellent, handsome old reel..

my problem is I have no use for the big Cardinals and the small ones are too much money..

[steelfish]

I couldnt stopped me from testing an aftermarket handle knob on the shaft of the stock handle, but then, I couldnt stop until I make it work.
Well it wasnt a plug & play installation job, I searched for a bearing on hand that fit the shaft diameter and knob shaft OD and found one, but had problem finding a smaller and thinner bearing to make the aftermarket fit on the reel without any modification, but I remembered I have some delrin bushing that were sent to me with the "bad bearing tool" order so, after some sanding, filing and fine tuning that delring washer gave me the exact size to install the aftermarket handle knob on the stock handle shaft.
so the reel is ready for some show off pictures and some pictures with his modern sibling model, Cardinal s30, which cost 1/3 or 1/5 of what the old Zebco cardinal 4 can cost nowadays   

no I dont have to take the handle knob as if I was pinching the reel and the handle knob feels super free on you hand.