hotrodding the ambassaduer 5 and 6 series

Alan: In your tutorial sometimes you say "lube" other times "grease"...are you using two different products for different applications?  If so, what specifically are you using?  Thanks again for the great article.

oops, sorry.  it's corrosion x for the bearings and levelwind assembly, shimano drag grease for the drag washers, and yamaha engine grease or shimano  drag grease for the screw holes and all the other non-exposed metal surfaces. 

This is an absolutely awesome howto...much props to you.

I got 10 silicon nitride (ceramic) single shielded bearings for $50 from mike's reel repair in BC, Canada.
pretty expensive but ceramic skateboard bearings go for about $9 a bearing, so it's a decent price.
shipping was $12 initially, but I complained about that and got it knocked down to $6, which still
hurts, but it is international shipping. mike also has the carbontex washers on his website as well
as a full complement of abu parts, including low ratio 'winch' gears, a non-level-wind frame (!) etc,
if you can figure out how to find them on the site.

The bearings came today and I replaced the frozen steel bearings in an ebay-new-to-me 4600
that I bought last year as my first kayak fishing conventional reel but also submerged numerous times
while doing things to the skinny end of the rod. I am getting better at not submerging the reel...

getting the old bearings out involved a couple pops with a hammer, using the axle to knock them out.
There was some corrosion left over, I should have cleaned all that out, but I'm too lazy.
There is a big round c-clip that holds the centrifugal brakes in the spool and the bearings behind that. but that came
off really easily and went back on just as easily. so what I am saying is that bearing replacement was easy.

since I am kayaking, I packed those bearings full of cals grease, which might not be the fastest way
to go, but will be the most corrosion resistant (I hope).

anyway, 125 yards of 20lb fireline with room for a 10 feet or so of topshot yozuri hybrid, carbontex drag washers,
and ceramic silicon nitride bearings make it a hot little santa cruz rockfish, ling and halibut reel not to mention probably
a decent freshwater bass reel. just don't set the drag over 8lbs,  .

later,

-j