My great uncles old tackle

For all you old timers out there - you might just know my great uncle Les Daft from years gone by when he was a prodigious match fisherman throughout the UK in the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's - especially between London and the Midlands (he was a long distance truck driver so stopped of to fish all over). If anyone wants to say hello to him let me know and i'll pass on your news.

Les is now in his 90's and the legs aren't up to fishing trips these days so he offered me a few bits of his modest tackle collection. I now have a Daiwa Black Shadow quiver rod (12-13ft), and a Daiwa reel. I think these are both from the early to mid 1980's. I wonder if anyone knows what the test curve is on the Black Shadow rod and if it will handle big fighting fish like double figure barbel?

The reel needs a full service as the bail arm often refuses to close and the drag isn't up to much, but i'm not sure if parts can still be found for these reels, and if it's cost effective to do so.

Advise welcomed.

I vaguely remember the Black Shadow. From recollection it was a breaming rod so a bit short of the 1 1/4 lb test curve for barbelling. They were good rods, though, made in Scotland.

Repairing anything but classic reels isn't really worthwhile. If you do it, it's for nostalgic reasons. That said, most reels need no more than a clean and re-greasing and as trashing it won't be a financial tragedy, you could have a go yourself.

The first job is to remove the handle and the bar which runs right through the handle shaft. Usually just a question of backwinding against the anti-reverse or removing the screw on the other side. Then remove the sideplate carefully and watch out for springs popping out, usually the ratchet pawl spring.

Once you have the sideplate off, just rinse all the old grease out with lighter petrol, once or twice, mop it dry, leave it to dry some more, then drench it in WD40 before wiping that out, then filling it with lith grease, in all the important places where stuff moves. Reassembvle, and I bet it works fine.