The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

I picked up an Ambidex No 3, last weekend at a boot sale , and to turn the handle was like stirring treacle on a cold morning, stripped ,cleaned and oil, still not much better when I stripped it down again, I looked at the main bearing behind the spool and realised the two plastic washers either side of the bearing were so tight on the shaft the bearing wasn't doing anything, and probably never has , removed the washers, opened up the holes till they rotated on the shaft gave it all another oiling re-assembled it, and wow ! it has made such a difference I thought I had better tell someone !

The end-float of the rotor assembly is controlled by the shims behind the tiny rear race behind the gears where the shaft to move the spool in and out goes in. Some reels have two nuts that lock together here, some have a circlip. The nuts are a little fiddly to get right, whereas the circlip and shims was quicker in assembly. The plastic washers either side of the large forward ball race need to have perfect surfaces or the balls will grind over them.

I can only guess someone has wrongly re-assembled your reel in the past. You do need a little end-float or the gears will mesh too tightly and jam slightly.

Everything was in the right place. The two large plastic washers were unbelievable tight, I had to use a knife to separate them from the bearing and work them up the shaft , once off you could see a circle left by the bearings in the washers , I reamed them out till they would easily slide over the shaft and then flipped them over so the smooth faces were against the bearing, and re-assembled. The washers must have always been tight and the stiffness felt was the gears trying to drag the washers around the shaft.
Now gravity will turn the handle which stops downwards when spun

You can get ointment for a stiff ambidex.....sorry

This is interesting...if you turned the washers, thus presenting an un-grooved surface to the balls, the reel should have got tighter...not looser. There always seems to be a bit of hand fettling when servicing these reels, quality control should have seen half of then=m at least sent back to the factory......

At least it's sorted now.

Although it may have got slightly tighter, I think the bearing is now working / rotating as it should, and the few thou's difference recovered by flipping the washers over to the un-grooved side may have improved the presentation of one gear to the other by fractionally moving the shaft along,
of course that's just a theory

I recently purchased another Ambidex that had the same problem and thanks to Kirpan's post and a complete strip down and some fettling is now turning nice and smoothly.
The TFF amongst everything else is wonderful resource in times of need ..
Trevor

I'm a newcomer here, but I'd like to add my comments.
I bought an Ambidex (FP2 I think) from the usual auction site and when it arrived it was in very clean condition but was stiff. Easy, I thought, I can put that right with a clean and lube. No, didn't work. And then, by chance, and lucky for me, I found Kirpan's post from March 6th last year referring to the rotor bearing washers. On the first strip down I didn't touch the bearing because it was solid, but, after reading Kirpan's post I had another go and, like him, I used a blade to separate the washers from the bearing up the shaft. I reamed them with a bit of wet-and-dry paper wrapped around a pencil, and, bingo, I had a lovely, smooth, easy spinning reel.
So I just had to join this forum to offer my thanks to Kirpan and Nobby for your generous input.

Hi all.

I'm soon looking to advertise in the wanted forums for some ambidex reels. Want to add some to my meagre collection of 50s and 60s British fixed spool reels.

From this thread can one assume that these reels are not too well made. They actually look well made to the eye. Never owned one.

As a kid had all the usual stuff like intrepids and winfield. Like many of us a mk1 Black Prince was my first reel.

As a leftie I tend to collect Intepids and odd numbered (RHW) Mitchell's etc. Got a soft spot for daiwa and olympics too.

So asking Nobby and the rest of you guys.. are they any good or just good looking. As they seem to command higher prices often than mitchell 300s etc.

Cheers Paul

I think it's fair to say that the designs were not perfect and the manufacturing quite poor on occasion. Consequently you might pick up a bad reel and spend a lot of time trying to get it better....I know I have and at one time I decided I wouldn't work on these reels anymore as they could be so frustrating....hours and hours spent for little improvement.

However, if you get a good one they are absolutely fine...and they are British after all.

Telling a good one from a bad one is a matter of a test drive I feel.....after all, you wouldn't buy a car without a test drive, so why buy a reel without trying it out.

That they fetch a good price on eBay these days is just one of those anomalies that online sales can produce from time to time....folk see high prices, assume they are selling at those elevated prices and find themselves also prepared to pay high prices too. Ten years ago you could buy any old Ambidex for a Tenner....but you might well buy a right old pig.

I recently sold my early Ambidex collection at Romsey to a buyer being advised by Chris Sandford and I got a fairly good price, but then they were both exceptionally good reels with many careful hours spent on them. At least the buyer and Chris had an opportunity to try the reels, whereas buying online is always a gamble, I feel.