[Ryan89]

Take from this what you will but this was my reel I used.

this is a Abu 6000c 1974 flavor. Nothing done to it with stock drag washers. I have 65lb spider wire braid an ima test on them to find out how much drag they stand before they say nope an start slipping. I’m doing this by tying the line to a scale an pulling till the reel drag starts to give telling me how much poundage my washers are holding. Be surprised for this reel.

 

[Ryan89]

I spiked at 26 lbs with an average pull 23-24lbs of drag before the drag started to slip.

 

[spokey9]

Did it slip smoothly or was it jerky?

 

[Ryan89]

It was slipping not smooth like butter no but you could say it was a constant slide? It wasn’t jerking like a beginner trying to drive a manual for the first time lol.

 

[spokey9]

Ok, I asked because it seems like a lot of drag for something that old. I got an old Diawa baitcaster from the 80s that the drag washers are on their last legs that has a high startup point but the drag also jerks when the line comes off 😂

 

[Ryan89]

O nice, yeah I just pulled again an she is slipping at around 24 lbs. so now 😎 carbon fiber drag washers an a good ole polish on the steel washers to see if this reel can touch 30 lbs. I want to say the reason for the 26 lb spike is it hasn’t had a lot of pull on it in a long time so what I’m thinking is like how piston rings can seize in a motor for a long time after sitting, I’m workig everything loose an it’s settling at 23-24 lbs of drag.

 

[Ryan89]

I just called abu Garcia to see what they had to say, I got put on hold an listened to some very nice elevator music an when he came back from what they could find out actually the black 6000c from what they said new was set at 25 lbs of max drag.

 

[jumpmaster]

I would bet that when you put carbon washers on it, it will slip before that, but be smoother.

 

[spokey9]

I doubt carbon fiber washers will increase your max...but it will make it smoother and run at a lower temp on a prolonged fight.

You might be able to up the max drag by shoehorning an extra washer into the drag stack, but you run a good risk of damaging the internals or even the frame itself.

 

[Ryan89]

Yeah when I called abu they said the gearing in these are usually rated for 5 lbs more then the drag an he did say if I go over 30 lbs I’ll start breaking teeth off. But if anything it will give me 1-2 lbs more but no it won’t decrease my drag. The smooth drag actually increased my gf’s rod by 4 lbs. she has one of them Lews Xfinity spinning combos from Walmart with the smooth drag custom cut washers in hers.

 

[J. Lewis]

First...cool post. Second, I'm pretty impressed. 24 lb of drag is plenty enough IMO (for anything I would personally be doing with that reel at least)

Love those older Abu' s.

As a related side note, this post brought back some memories...namely of me being a 14 year old kid with an old Abu reel and putting 50lb mono on it to snook fish from a bridge.

I burned a couple of them up that way. Not so much from any issues with the reel, more from me being young , fishing a PILE and not washing my reels off after covering them with sand and saltwater lol.

At any rate, somewhere deep in the memory bank, I vaguely remember cranking the drag down on one and the line winder being where the failure occured. I want to say that there may have been a huge stingray involved lol. I can't really remember the details, except that I remember thinking..."ohhh, that's where they break if you do THAT" LOL.

 

[ccat]

Ryan, I have one of those from about the same era and love that reel in the way it casts, the drag it has, but don't like how slow they are on the retrieve. II think the gear ratio of about 2.1.1..... , but it is a very smooth reel.
I have never done anything but clean, oil and grease it so a professional tune and washer upgrade would probably put it over the top. Pipeline tackle is just a few miles from me and they do the best job with ABU reels, so it may be time for that cleaning.
Long live these older reels.

 

[Ryan89]

i wanna say mine is that 4.7-1? I think that’s what abu said.

 

[jumpmaster]

Really? they said that installing carbon drag washers will give around 4 lb. more drag? I wouldnt have thought that. My thinking was that it would be smoother, and not as sticky, and that would probably make it slip with less lbs, than one that sticks. Goes to show what I know, lol.