I found a good deal on bearings; category5bearings.com has buy one get one free on ceramic bearings. They are in San Antonio.

Unless your bearings are shot, I'd simply flush what you've got, re-lube them and move on. When the bearing upgrade fad hit bass fishing 20+ years ago, I was all over it, first upgrading to ABEC 7 and some ABEC 9 bearings, then it was ceramics, Rocket oil etc. There's so little difference between the highest grade bearings available and what the factories put in decent reels that it's literally pissing your money away.

I like tinkering with my old vintage reels just to see what how good I can get them. An excuse to hang out in my shop.

Agree. And I put some Boca's on my old curados a few years ago and there was a noticeable difference.

AGREE! I just did this to 2 old CI-200 Shimano Citicas and 1 old CU-200 Curado. First I found a couple of great youtube videos on disassembly and cleaning and I got that done. Then I replaced the bearings with the HawgTech ceramic bearings, $8 each I think. While i was in there i went ahead and installed carbontex drag washers as well. No more fishing than I do, I'm confident these reels will last for many more years. The bearings made a huge difference. I'm having to re-learn how to cast and not backlash but it's worth the learning curve.

I’m like Old Tracker and tinkering with reels or what ever else is my stress reliever. Couple of years ago I decided to do some testing with some of my Curado 200s. In addition to deep cleaning and polishing critical areas, I put several types of bearings in the reels and one I put 13 Fishing Ceramic Bushings in it. Then, using the same lure, took them out to my dock. One reel stood out in smoothness and performance and it was the one with the 13 Fishing bushings followed closely by Boca. It was a fun project and kept me occupied for several weeks as it took me about 12-14 hrs for each reel and I have 12 total.

Lately, I’ve been buying some Chronarch 100Ds and have just been cleaning the bearings and re-lubing and getting great improved performance. You can end up spending beaucoup bucks on bearings these days

Where are you finding the Chronarch D’s?

Various places. I found two local in Houston on Offerup and I think the last three I've bought on eBay. I've had to pay north of $200 for all of them except one that was a little rough cosmetically but it still works as it should.

Guess I don’t look on eBay enough, I check FB fairly consistently for them. One of the best reels made, I have 5 of them.

Yep, totally agree

My dad bought his first ABU 5000 in 1958 and used it several years, then gave it to me and bought himself another one. I used mine a lot for about 20 years and then retired it to the shed by our pond where I still got it out and fished with it occasionally. He used his with his topwater rod until he passed away in 2000.

They had both been sitting in my shed for the last 20 years, but last summer I decided to fix them up and use them some again. I cleaned them up and replaced a few worn parts, then bought Boca bearings to replace the spool bushings, and also found level wind kits with bearings for them on eBay. Both of the old reels work better now than they did when new, and they aren't really that much of a handicap from using a modern reel. They don't have a thumb bar, but the worst thing about them is the slow retrieve ratio. There are times when that doesn't really matter, and I have enjoyed fishing with them again. It doesn't make sense from a financial standpoint to do this, so there has to be some nostalgia involved, but it's been a fun project. I like to use old lures like a Hawaiian Wiggler with them.

I wish reel bearings were what was wrong with my fishing! I've just rehabbed a 50-year-old ABU Sweden Ambassadeur 5000, with carbon fiber drag washers, new brake weights. I can cast it a country mile. My seven year-old Shimano Chronarch CI4+ sounds like a 12-volt winch, but still casts great. I have bought two Chinese Piscifun baitcasters that out-perfom anything the Shimano ever did. Still, I just catch the occasional red, black or trout. Something tells me it's not my reel bearings.

When I see the latest fads for rods and reels, I try to envision how many fish have been caught on Zebco 33's? Since the late 40's, from Zero Hour Bomb Company!

IslandJim

I agree somewhat with Cmack. I've got a stock Curado 51E and one with upgraded ceramic bearings and supertuned. Both cleaned and done by the same guy. I can't tell the difference. However, I have several other reels that I had bearings upgraded at the same time as the reel was cleaned and tuned (by a different guy...Ian Shields). On most of them I found that I could lower my brakes afterwards. Also that I got about the same distance but with less effort. I've never had a bearing upgrade where I noticed a significant increase in distance. I may be in the minority....due to my casting ability...as I've read of many claiming a nice increase in casting distance.

My understanding is the biggest noticeable difference is if you are trying to take a normal bass reel and turn it into a BFS reel by changing bearings and going to a lighter, shallower spool. The quicker spool start up is a benefit in this scenario.

Not being a great caster, I usually try to have my reels upgraded (and often tuned) so that the worst part of the system is me. Expensive if done to all reels (and I can't afford all to be upgraded), but at least I know the reels are at their best. I didn't get into baitcast reels until I was 69 so I never will be as good as most of you. Only so much us old dogs can learn.