Right Tat, I\'d said the modification was to accomdate a thumb screw, well it\'s actually to accomodate one of the screws that holds the front cross member of the CT frame. This screw is unique to the CT frame and the hole that is modified houses the end of the worm drive cover on a standard levelwind 7000.
The hole can be seen on this pic the upper left hole in the plate and note it\'s unusual shape.
Here it is in close up (crap pic but you get the gist of it!
)
Here\'s a normal 7000 levelwind reel (7200) and note how the hole is on a standard gearplate.
And here it is close up.
I didn\'t reccomend drilling, I just said you would have to do it to use an Abu7500C3CT frame. There\'s no way round the fact, otherwise the gearplate will not sit against the edge of the cage correctly. Generally reel modification is a one way journey anyway. If you remove the top bar of a levelwind frame like you would normally, then you choose to saw the bar out and file the ends down to leave stumps, I\'d say you\'re buggered if you want to return it to it\'s original state. However, drilling the gearplate to accomodate the cage screw and using a CT cage will not make any difference if you come to put the old cage back on the reel, other than the previously mentioned issue of possible corrosion.
Gwyn, regarding conversion bars, I bought some last year from a scottish lad called David Norwich and his email address
was
[email protected]
