graying.geek

I acknowledge this is a pretty stale thread, but am hoping to tap into the considerable expertise you guys have in refurbing old Ambassadeurs. I picked up a 5500C Big "A" recently that seems to be in pretty good condition, but it obviously needs some cleaning and attention. I've never worked on the internals of one of these critters, or any other reel, so hence my questions: 1) Noting my lack of experience, is this something I can reasonably take on? 2) Checking the advice on a couple of sites, replacing the drag washers with carbontex and doing a thorough cleaning and lubricating seem to be gimmes. Any other replacements? 3) Which schematic matches the Big A model? I wasn't able to find anything specifically listed on the Abu site, and visual inspection of all of the older schematics didn't give me a solid match. Last thing I want is to open up the reel, hear it go "sproing", and not have a diagram to help me put it back together. 4) Anything I should avoid doing? e.g. "Never, ever remove the screw holding the...." 5) Any other advice would be appreciated.