ABU Ambassadeur  reels need servicing to work over time. And if you take the time and effort, you will have a reel that may last you a life time. My ABU Ambassadeur 6500 CS Rocket is 15 years old, and my latest purchase, a red ABU 7000 is 20 years old, and both reels are still going strong, and is in use on every fishing trip.

Since I go fishing several times a week, I use a pretty hard maintenance schedule. After every trip I rinse the reels in freshwater, to get off as much salt as I can from the exposed surfases of the reels, then add some rocket oil to the level wind worm gear and make sure everything in there is clean. And once a month I take the whole reel appart, and clean, grease and oil the oil thing. But if you only fish ocationally, then doing this once or twice a year may be enough. One thing is for sure though. A well maintained Ambassadeur reel will last you a life time (if not one of the made in china plastic fantastics thet ABU Garcia have been churning out in the last few years)

I was going to make a big “how to maintain and service your Ambassadeur reel “article. But when I did my research I found that at least for my two reels the work has already been extensively done. So all you will find here today are links to other peoples maintenance guides.

First off is Tim Parratt’s Pictorial Servicing Guides on Realsreels.com. Here you will find servicing guides for many of the models of Ambassadeur reels from the 5000 to the 10000 series.

Don’t mind if you do not find your excact model of reel. The difference between ABU Ambassadeur reels within a series is minimal, if any. Most of the time there are only cosmetic differences. And these guides are so good you should not have a problem following them.

Else there is a whole smattering of “how to” videos on Youtube on the subject. So try a search there for  “ABU Ambassadeur reel servicing”, and you shopuld find some videos that could help you. Again, if you cant find one for your excact reel, dont worry, as the internal works of the Ambassadeurs vary little within a series of reels. Except for the new 7000i series which is completely different from the older 7000.