Ambidex Mark Nine observations.
Posted: Mon Sep 09, 2013 4:55 pm
I bought this reel because I wanted to find out how Youngs gave it such a large throw, the spool is twice as wide as early models and substantialy wider than the Delmatic being offered at the same time. I'd hazard a guess the Match was made in the same way... here's the spools:
I suspected the crankshaft had been 'stroked', a way of giving a piston engine a larger capacity by increasing the stroke of the crankshaft. This indeed proved the case and the crankpin is now a separate disc exceeding the outer edge of the crankwebs.
Here's the crankshaft assembly dismantled in the correct order:
The new longer throw means the connecting-rod needs a notch out of it to avoid clouting the side plate mounting screw!
And on the forward stroke the spool collides with the bale arm !
OK, this bale arm is a tiny bit bent, but I doubt it ever cleared the spool before and a little work is in order........
The reel has the all too common rust issues on the bale arm too:
And like many it has lost its black knob from the a/r lever I hadn't realised that this matters, but it does.....the remaining pin can fall inside the reel and gouge the con-rod. If you scroll back up you'll see the damage to mine...and that's after cleaning it up!
Resigned to carving something small and fiddly out of plastic I suddenly had a brainwave....I put a black rubber float band on the lever and filled the space up with 5 minute set epoxy, poking the air bubbles out with a pin as I went. ( yes, of course I missed some )
I now have a soft-touch a/r lever button and the pin can't do any more damage.
I know a few of you have these damaged a/r levers and this is such a simple fix!
If only I had some black rod-makers epoxy but at £15 a pot this'll do. I'll paint it black tomorrow.
The reel has some other issues to try and sort out, but the old line-lay looks spot-on so I shall persevere with this one, it'll cast far better than the other models.
Since it has the desirable swan-necked body I guess the Mark Nine is one of the more dsought-after models, even the Match was offered only in the wedge-shaped body.
One last thing, some later 'proper' bale arm reels have a circlip holding the bale arm on at the spring end. The shaft it clips onto is very prone to breaking here if handled badly and later reels reverted to the screw of earlier models:
I suspected the crankshaft had been 'stroked', a way of giving a piston engine a larger capacity by increasing the stroke of the crankshaft. This indeed proved the case and the crankpin is now a separate disc exceeding the outer edge of the crankwebs.
Here's the crankshaft assembly dismantled in the correct order:
The new longer throw means the connecting-rod needs a notch out of it to avoid clouting the side plate mounting screw!
And on the forward stroke the spool collides with the bale arm !
OK, this bale arm is a tiny bit bent, but I doubt it ever cleared the spool before and a little work is in order........
The reel has the all too common rust issues on the bale arm too:
And like many it has lost its black knob from the a/r lever I hadn't realised that this matters, but it does.....the remaining pin can fall inside the reel and gouge the con-rod. If you scroll back up you'll see the damage to mine...and that's after cleaning it up!
Resigned to carving something small and fiddly out of plastic I suddenly had a brainwave....I put a black rubber float band on the lever and filled the space up with 5 minute set epoxy, poking the air bubbles out with a pin as I went. ( yes, of course I missed some )
I now have a soft-touch a/r lever button and the pin can't do any more damage.
I know a few of you have these damaged a/r levers and this is such a simple fix!
If only I had some black rod-makers epoxy but at £15 a pot this'll do. I'll paint it black tomorrow.
The reel has some other issues to try and sort out, but the old line-lay looks spot-on so I shall persevere with this one, it'll cast far better than the other models.
Since it has the desirable swan-necked body I guess the Mark Nine is one of the more dsought-after models, even the Match was offered only in the wedge-shaped body.
One last thing, some later 'proper' bale arm reels have a circlip holding the bale arm on at the spring end. The shaft it clips onto is very prone to breaking here if handled badly and later reels reverted to the screw of earlier models: