Use a light film of grease on stock penn and abu drag washers
the reason for a light film is this ,when the drags are being used they build
up heat right fast,  this heat in turn can turn a stack of brass blue , if you
see that blue look on the brass you know its gotten hot enuff to harden the
washers thru the heat  tempering them to get that color .also heat
erosion will trash micarta or fiber washers in a fast amount of time what i
use for drag grease is lubrimatic heavy duty lithium barium grease with
graphite, this repels water and heat and ; works for me real well, ive saved
and resurected 25 year old drag washers with this stuff  also ,breaking the
glaze on the washers helps alot using a 600 grit emery wet/dry
sandpaper  this will let use use a less amount of a turn on the drag wheel
to get a setting easier as well. hope this sheds light ......note* on some
penn washers such as ht-100 drag washers its best to use a very sparce
amount of silicone grease to keep washer from drying out at least once a
year i find and on smoothie type drags use NO grease as these are meant
to be used dry.

What i do to my old penns is to clean them out well and on the spool
shafts i buff them out to a mirror finish with a dremel motor tool and
jewelers rouge carefully , this milks it out considerabley on the casts and
also i mirror all the brass inside too on the pinion plate and the gearshaft
plate underneath as well as the shaft itself, on the selector plate it has the
two tips that stick up to push the pinion plate down , i slightly round the
edges so it doesnt feel too rough sometimes when i go to select
freespool, i also use a good grease lightly on my drags too and only a thin
film on them. on the ratchet gear i use a fair amount so it helps quiet the
ratchet noise down some.on the level wind what i do is to very lightly oil
the shaft ends on that, what i found was a whole drop slows it right down
.i try to keep those tracks clean as possible as i can , that and keep the
pawl in its housing cleaned often too to pevent spool line loading on
one side if she misses a track on a few spins from dirt. any how i just
hope all this helps you out

1. 5 figure numbers XXXXX given to the Record ambassadeurs. 6 figure
serialized 179911 50's to early 60's. 6 figure numbers xx06xx mid-60's
replace the 0 in the middle with the number 6 6 figure number 71xxxx OR
xx71xx 70 first 2 or the middle 2 will give you year. The 80's are same as
70's but in the 80's, it'll be the first 2 numbers. Late 80's to early 90's--3 pair
of numbers separated by hyphen. Late 90's 06006 or 04006 made in 1996.
4 screw sideplates were used on the earlier reels Color of spool was gray
on early reels and changed to silver color in early 60's. Smooth vs
Checkered foot. Abu reels were smooth foot until 1973 which time then
checkered .*NOTE this is a rough guide for ambassdor reels

While at my local Radio Shack scrounging for some stuff, I found some
Neodium Rare Earth magnets that are the exact size I needed to use in
the Quantums and Abu's! These are a direct drop in fit for Abu Garcia
Black Max and Quantum low profile reels,The Neodium mags are stronger
than the factorymags in the reel itself ,And the strongest magnets one
could ever possibly get Abu Garcia shipped all of these reels with 3
magnets and ten slots,3 slots filled. What I did was to add these extra
Neodium Iron Boron Rare Earth Magnets to fill the empty Spaces on three
reels, two Black Maxxes and one brand new Quantum ex 501 cx. On the
Abu's I used a flat tape strip magnet cut in a half moon for a backing for
the magnets, then used a bit of superglue to hold them in place on the
carrier.Also one must set the magnets so that they are north south north
south all around for A better eddy current and magnetic force , just hold
the magnet next to one in place and the force from the set in mag will tell
you by pushing or pulling it away . The Principle used is this , the eddy
currents created by the aluminum spool spinning next to the magnets
creates a force that keeps the reel from backlashing one one during a cast
. With the standard three magnets in the Abu's also the five in the
Quantum it just was not enough to control the spool from creating a nice
bird's nest when i missed a cast ,or threw too hard etc.So what I did was
to add in more mags for a full stack on each reel.Using less tension
and more mag control made sense to me as I was out for more distance
,less backlash was the first reason. My tests when done were excellent
results as according to plans i had.  I threw A normal cast with my old zara
spook .The tension was set lightly just so that a bit more of A turn on the
knob and the spool would move side to side some.The mag brake adjust
was still set the same as before at a setting of five because i forgot to
change it. The cast went far on a sps 1100 7 foot Shakespeare Ugly Stick
as usual but the line just had no lift on the spool about midway through the
cast. I did not use the thumb at first as I had before to control the spool,
But on the touch down when the lure hit the water.I then set it to five on
the mag adjust and set the tension so that I had some very very light
sideplay in the spool .I cast the same with the Abu Black Max again. Lifting
of the line with no thumb on the spool was less but Instinctivley used my
thumb to control the spool on touchdown. The third cast was all out for
distance , The line lifted with the heavy cast some and dissapeared when
the lure touched down in the water.My conclusions were as I expected ,
No distance shortening of the casts, less backlash considerably and no
tension on the spool for a true freespool effect.With the Quantum I added
in the extra mags filling the slots up.This reel was as bad as the Abus for
backlashing even with two extra magnets stone cold stock than the Abu's.
When I tried to get some magnets from Abu Garcia I found that I had to
buy the whole mag carrier plate assembly, not being pleased i found my
dream come true at Radio Shack with part # 64-1895. Now for the
Quantum Testing, I had set the spool with some light tension with no
sideplay and the mags setting to five for my starting point again ,The idea
was to have it the same as the Abu to fairly judge this.I put the Zara Spook
on that I used on the abu , same rod as well and cast normally . just a
slight lift on the line as the lure was in mid flight heading down to the
water. Next cast I had the setting on the mags to ten maxxed out for all it
was worth and then set the spool tension so I had some slight sideplay in
the spool. I let it fly casting the same as before this time no line lifting  in
mid cast this time.Now for cast number three, The acid test for distance all
out with my favorite Zara Spook. I had sent it out there nice and far with
minimal line lift mid flight on a heavy cast and the no spool tension  with
some sideplay , when she hit the water i had maybe three loose wraps of
line on the spool without using my thumb at all ,Man it was hard keeping
my thumb from wanting to touch the spool I will admit.the mag setting was
at 4-5 on casts  .I get no lift at all when casting without thumbing the reel
at all on touchdown as well as keep the spool set with spool sideplay and
mag settings at 3-6 for 3\8 oz to 3\4 oz baits.I would use more control with
a heavier lure or a c rigged bait , maybe more tension for A real heave on
the rod going for distance gained I think with a pendulum cast .For A light
bait I would get no spool over run anymore at all and yet the same
distance on A cast as before if not farther with same bait used before the
magnet add job. Any how i hope this helps some to make their reels better
for casting for them selves