Hi Tim,
yes, it's Ultracast (modular spools, origin 1990).
Since it doesn't have an idler, and this version of the clicker takes up little space, there's room inside the backplate for the Avail mag add-on (both reels).
On the 5500, I'm going to defeat the clicker, anyway, changing the spool cog to the Mike's cog with abec-7 ceramic bearings eliminating cog drag.
On the 6500, I'm going to keep the clicker, for both surf and trolling, and switch to an avail POM (delrin) spool cog.
The 5500 gets 4-pin Avail centrifugal brake, and the 6500 gets the Abu 6-pin.
I'll be throwing 1/8- to 3/8-oz on the 5500, and 1 to 4 oz on the 6500.
Both get abec-7 ceramic spool berings.
Basically, I'm going to move the existing spools into cans and build complete new (slicker) spools.
Planning to fish 20-lb braid on both, and both get 5-mm-deep Avail microcast spools.
My back yard is 150' wide, which won't be enough to test these reels, but I fish some wide cuts at the coast, where you measure cast by fish.
Best caster I have currently is my Lew's Super Duty. I can tell a lot by how the empty spools spin in comparison, and hopefully I'll get forever-spin spool so setting the mag (under the backplate) will not be too much guessing.
Here's the handle I picked out for the 5500 -
the 6500 is going to get my favorite gomexus/livre mod that I used on my Tica Caiman (except blue)
each of my new handles with knobs weighs weighs exactly 20 grams, and both reels are going to loose a half-pound with the steel handles.
I'm going to begin a separate thread to show both reels and document the work - right now, have one reel in hand, second reel in Miami Customs, and all my parts ordered.
Not the best example to show, but here's the Akios barstock frame - mine will be silver.
For a limited run, Akios offered the barstock frame for level-wind Ambassadeurs - those are probably gold-weight-value now.
Adding a ps here, if any of you guys have 2500, 3600, 1500 Ambassadeurs, you can get some really great parts from Japan to not only slick up the spool, but decrease level-wind inertia to increase cast.
https://japantackle.com/tuning-parts/br ... r.html?p=2Of course that's the reason the Japan market has sent the cost of those used reels to the stratosphere.