My friend at work gave me a bunch of his old fishing gear. Included in the lot were a bunch of Abu Garcia Ambassadeur 4600 c4ss, a few 5500s, lots of rods, and a Shimano Bantam Black Magnum. Does anyone know about the black magnum? Is it a pretty decent reel?

Also, is anyone familiar with improving the Ambassadeur 4600 c4s. Improving the bearings, cleaning them out etc..

Had both the ambassaduer 4600C & 5500C. Also had bantam silvers and blacks. The black bantam was the 50G, a large baitcaster I used for saltwater fishing.

The silver bantams were the 100 & 300 both bass sized reels. The Shimanos and ambassaduers were the last baitcasters I used for bass fishing before switching to spinning tackle.

In the day they were fine reels. By todays standards I guess some would they are antiquated.I know that shimano doesn't make the bantams that I had anymore but if you got and they work they'll catch fish.

As far as the "round" ambassaduers go I loved those reels!! I think they might still be in production but i'm not 100% sure on that.

Use the reels and enjoy them they were workhorse reels for me.

Any old reel can be improved by a thorough cleaning and re-lubing.  Try that first.  You live in St. Louis, right?  Being on the other side of the state, I seldom get to St. Louis, but when I do I like to go to Paul's Bait & tackle on Chippewa.  It is a neat old store with lots of stuff and they are VERY knowledgable about reel repair, maintenance, etc.  If I lived in St. Louis, that is where I'd go for answers about old fishing tackle.

Anybody have any disassembly/ cleaning instructions for the 4600 4cs?

Mike's reel repair out of Canada has tons of upgrades for the older abus and have the schematics posted as well.