ABU 56XX/65XX strength question

[Keta]

As soon as it starts snowing I'll be playing around with a pair of ABU C4 reels (a 5601 and 6501) I've been upgrading and was wondering where the next weak spot will be.  I've seen bent offside plates and I'm thinking this or the spool shaft will be the next weakness.  I'm well over the drag the reels were designed for now and over what I will fish these reels but I would like to see what can be done to them and how much drag pressure these reels can produce without breaking.   

[alantani]

the first thing to go is the gear set.  10 pounds of drag will damage the gear teeth with ease. 

[Snagged2]

Hi Keta,,
I've got an idea where it might be,,,

check this out!

http://whiskerfishtackle.com/Tutorials.html

6500 reelfoot repair tutorial,,,

[Ken_D]

the first thing to go is the gear set.  10 pounds of drag will damage the gear teeth with ease.  

Next will be the frame's connection's points loosening & then racking, and, as S2 states, the reel will be an amputee, losing the foot.  The 56 reels are 6.X-1. The little pinion inside will self-destruct within 3 years, fished as you plan to. (As AT indicates) You may have better luck with the standard 5.x-1 ratio, or: if you can find one, a 'winch' gearset of 3.x-1.  

I'm dis-agreeing with your choice of words re: "weak points"....I would change weakpoints to: deliberately over-stressed to failure points.  Fished as intended, an Abu is a 20-25 year reel.  And sometimes even longer.
Today, I'm doing a 6000 from the late 60's, making it a 40 year+ reel ! All it needs is a better RH sideplate, a shim, and a bearing retainer. The owner fishes in-river salmon and steelhead.

I see where you are coming from, tho, Abus are not overly spendy, or complicated, with parts very easy to get, so you can look after them yourself.

[Killerbug]

I can't help myself reminding you guys what the Ambassaduer classic's was originally designed for(Sea run brows and pike).  That we see these reels used for a various different sea fishing tasks past those 58 years they have been on the market, speaks for itself.  No other fishing reel have ever come, and probably will, ever come close to a design as successful as that. 

[Keta]

Thanks for the info.

I have a set of the 3.x-1 gears but I need the higher retrieve for what I'm trying to do right now.  The low gears go in the reels when I target Mackinaw.  I could have my machenest friend make up a set of gears (he works for beer) but I don't think the expence (several cases of beer) is needed with the other potential problems. I don't want a reel foot to come off!!!

I guess it's only a "week spot" if it fails, even if under a load far higher than originally designed for.

I'm wanting to use these as 30lb reels and Allan's 10lbs of drag just makes it. I'll drop my needs down to 25lb, more than enough for our 12lb-35lb albacore.

Thursday I fought a 400 + pound sealion for 15 minutes with my 6501C4 (30lb fluro topshot) and got the albacore back....well all but a big bite.

Killerbug, In the Pacific NW 56XX/65XX reels are mostly used for fishing for returning salmon in our rivers but some people use them for trolling reels when targeting the large trout that live in Klamath Lake, I prefer my smaller steelhead reels (Shimano Calcutta 51's) for the 6-14 pound redband trout there.   When I lived in Alaska my main saltwater salmon reel was a 70's vintage 6000C, most people used Penn reels.

[Ken_D]

No, the thumb bar can go or stay and I have a 5601C3 that I can put higher gears into. 

[Keta]

No, I don't care either way and I have a 5601C3 I can put high gears in.

[Ken_D]

Reason for the question is: Back in the day (70's), Abu used to use a higher-strength frame for the C models....
chrome over brass.  Pure fishing will advise if these frames are still in the system, and if th LH models were the same as the RH models: chromed over brass.

A quick search through schematic-land will show the frame pn's for the 5001C, and 6001C, early models. If they are still out there, and actually the same makeup as the Rh reels, your corrosion resistance and strength factors
both go up a lot.

Being brass, if they ever get too loose, you can solver solder them back to solid. 

[Mooki]

For modern reels, frames from the ProRockets ought to be the sturdiest (chrome over brass), I've swapped out a couple of aluminium frames in some of my reels (TGC and C3) for the ProRocket-frames.
Also bought a couple of frames from UT for some other reels (I've been indormed that UT buys chromed brass frames from ABU and has a contractor who makes sure that the frames are perfectly aligned and reworks all joints with harder metal rivets).
The beauty of this is that if you have a C3, C4, whatever with UltraCast design you can use the ProRocket-frames.
For thumb bar reels though the choice might be limited to the frame from 5601C JB, I'm not aware of any right handed reel with thumb bar and chromed brass frame...
An added bonus with brass frames is that there is a tiny amount of flex, while aluminium is stiffer this also means that the joints will work loose much easier (at least that is how I've understood it )