Tuning - Abu 6500 CT - High Speed (Red One)

Tue Sep 18, 2007 12:12 pm

Lads,

I know this is the casting section but I was wondering what would ye recommend as a good all round combination of blocks/mags to get the best out of this reel for casting/fishing.
Should I take out all the blocks and just go with mags or... etc. etc.

Cheers,
Liam

...at the moment I have one brake block and no mags and the thing is still running too slow even with yellow rocket fuel (no end tension either) Is this normal?

Tue Sep 18, 2007 4:22 pm

I would guess that the mags alone should be fine...... you might need a single block if you had a tough wind in your face....

Kev

Tue Sep 18, 2007 6:56 pm

i find it hard to believe its running to slow just with one brakeblock :shock: did you flush the bearings out with lighter fluid to get rid of any grease and then oil them ? should run fine with just mags alone brake blocks tend to be :on: all the time wher the mags can be adjusted to suit .

Wed Sep 19, 2007 11:44 am

AG,

Yup I flushed them out and reoiled with yellow RF when I got it. Like you I couldn't figure out why it was running so slow so I flushed them again and relubed them the other night - strange.

Will do away with the brake blocks so for fishing and stick with the mags...

Someone told me that putting tournament RF in a reel for fishing is a bad idea as it's too thin and will run out of the bearings too quickly? Is there any truth in that? Should I stick with the yellow and remove some mags instead?

Cheers,
Liam

Wed Sep 19, 2007 3:24 pm

I'd stick with yellow for sure Liam, especially until you remove the brake blocks, then get a feel for it from there. Tournament RF is very thin and will give you a lot of problems when fishing.... If you feel that the bearings are running too slow after the brake block removal you could remove one of the protection covers and run then through lighter fluid again...... just in case. If there is any grease in there, this will get rid of it for sure.

Kevin

Wed Sep 19, 2007 4:09 pm

Yes, The thinner the oil the shorter it lasts. e.g. Red rf will be retained for longer than yellow rf.

Donagh

Wed Sep 19, 2007 10:10 pm

Cheers for that lads, am thinking of sticking with the yellow RF and maybe now removing some magnets. Interestingly I did some rooting around today on the world sea fishing forums and saw several posts complaining about this reel being very sluggish, mad, never had an abu do this before

Liam

Thu Sep 20, 2007 1:37 pm

How ya Liam,

I have 1 of the new Premium Gray / orange ones but have to say it's a flier, I havn't olied the bearings or anything and with mags off it flies. Havn't heard of many others being slow.

Mon Jan 14, 2008 6:55 pm

my mag elites have become terrible slow altogether......

Use no brake blocks (never have) as I find mags addequate but have to back the mags down to No 2 to get any decent cast away..

Both reels are regularly stripped and oiled.

Always used yellow rocket fuel but I am going to try tournament rocket fuel to see if it improves things at all.

Mon Jan 14, 2008 9:31 pm

does this reel have the 6pin break blocks, found them to slow the new 5500 i got so had them removed and replaced with the standard 2 pin

Mon Jan 28, 2008 12:56 pm

I have the premium mag elite & Hi Speed and the Hi speed is much slower.

I have been told that one of the reasons for this is the clicker/rachet which is a plastic cog at the end of the spool and some anglers are removing this and also installing the bullet shaped brass piece from the older mag elite to speed things up.

I have also heard of lads removing the six spokes off of the brake assembly and also removing magnets as necessary to speed things up but this would proably be the norm for reels destined for casting courts anyway.