AMBASSADEUR 5600 CA

[Mjg378]

I was with my son dropping off furniture at his girlfriend's childhood home.      Of  course, when I saw a fishing rod in the corner of the garage.  I asked "Whose is that?"    "It was my grandpas but I'm not sure if it works"    I made a beeline over.    Dirty! With a bobber and very small j hook and a ABU 5600 CA reel basically working!!
(I have a couple of 5500 C3 that I love.)   So she checked and I took it home.  I've cleaned it up so she can now use her grandpas reel!!   
 For basic reference with some minor differences, I used:

https://alantani.com/index.php/topic,796.0.html 

When looking on different sites, the 5600 CA seems to go for premiums (just in case to keep the value, I did clean and kept it all to original parts and drags). Came out great.  She wants to keep the reel (sentimental reasons) so she is not looking to sell, I'm just wondering why they go for so much $$$   
(Yes. She is  going to fish it!)

Mike Grosman
Memphis Tn

[Mjg378]

Schematic for 5600 CA

[Mjg378]

A few more pictures taking the reel apart.    While taking it apart The tiny c clip on the handle almost got away from me.   When I pull them off I  try to take them off while inside the box, covering as much area with my hand.   This time luckily it went into the cloth and stuck. 

[Mjg378]

Almost have it back together!

[Mjg378]

Really nice reel.  I'm going to put 12 lb mono on it.  With the leather( I think they're leather)  drags I'm sure it will be fine.  I'll try to post pictures in the future when we go fishing!

[oc1]

There's a lot of reasons they're popular and, therefore, expensive.  It's a solid reel. It has a high gear ratio and high IPT, but you don't feel it in the start-up when cranking.

I particularly like the frame design.  It provides plenty of support, but you can still get your fingers in there to pick out a backlash. 

It has that set-up where the spool is riding on the spindle, instead of the spindle riding on the side plates.  Side plates can get knocked out of alignment if the reel is bumped/dropped.  But as long as the spindle is straight you get max performance. 

It palms OK, but like other ambassadeurs, it doesn't plam great..  The first thing I did was take the levelwind out of mine and made a low-profile tail plate so it would palm and cast better.

There is something weird about the anti-reverse that I don't like but I'd have to go back into the reel to remember what it is.