ABU 6501 C Maint

[striperman36]

Originally Posted by fcap60

Striperman:

I own and fish a bunch of Abus and maintenance is relativley easy. The tricky part is doing it the first time. After that, it's like dissassembing and reassembling a small puzzle.

If you are new to using Abus, I reccomend you just fish it out of the box the first season and learn to use it. I think some of the upgrades may be somewhat over rated or exagerated. However, you will notice an improved drag performance by adding HT100 drag washers. I've never used the SMOOTHIES or EXTREME SMOOTHIES, but I'm sure they offer added benefits also. You may notice the drag feels a little "sticky" when you hook a good fish...but don't loose sleep over it.

If you are using it as a surf outfit, there are a few minor self-upgrades you can make to increase performance., but again, I reccomend you fish it "AS IS" for a while and get use to it.

If you want to start going inside, follow the directions that come with the reel. Once you remove the spool, you'll want to keep the bearings and a few other parts well oiled.

If the reel is brand new, I wouldn't open it up yet until after you use it unless you want to explore inside.

If you need any specific details, let me know and I'll get you further info. There's been a lot written about fine-tuning these reels.

Good luck.

One I want to oil and I have the directions in Japanese!! I want to change the drag disks as I was over tightening them this year.

The other is a used 6501 TCS based for freshwater use for muskie that I need to upgrade for saltwater and braid use. I do not have the instructions for this reel.