Won my second reel on Ebay today – an Abu Garcia 6500GR. This is a magnetically braked reel, released in 1985 and on sale for only a short time, apparently. Like my Abu CS Rocket, this one has been CT converted. This was a penny more than the Rocket, at £31.02 including P+P.
Abu Garcia 6500GR
I got my Rocket home last night (couldn’t resist taking it to work to have a look), and gave it a partial strip down, oil, greased the gears up and also fitted one of my spare centrifugal brake pads, because it didn’t have any.
Looking forward to taking it on a fishing trip to see how it casts. It polished up quite well, but I still had problems retrieving the bearings from the spool – any ideas on how to do this would be gratefully received. I’ve tried inserting pins at an angle, to try to get purchase on one side of the bearing, but this hasn’t worked. I think the pressure needs to be equally spread around the bearing. It has been oiled with 3-in-1, and then Abu Rocket oil last night; hopefully that, in conjunction with a few casts, will loosen them up a bit.
Will be interested to see what the GR looks like inside; the Abu’s I’ve dismantled in the past have all been of the same basic configuration, and none of them have been Mag braked.
Jims Sea Angling Diary - Fishing in Brighton, Sussex 
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