Install of Round Replacement Knobs on Sustain 400FE and Saragosa 8000F (pics)

[flvol77]

First of all I put this in this forum because I am 99% the same guy I bought my knobs from out of Cali provides these knobs to Smoothdrag.com, they are the same knobs and they are really nice.  I am just going to order them through Smoothdrag.com in the future because her prices are better.   Also the smoothdrag.com directions are word for word the same as the guy I bought them from.

So, I had some of the round knobs lying around from TLD 25's (upgraded to the Jumbo T - Bar handles)

I kept reading about how you would have to drill the rivet out and honestly had no clue what to do and where to go from there.

Couple things I want to say, don't do this if you have ANY doubts whether you may not like the round knob, basically once you start drilling there is NO going back and you will have to buy a new handle.

Also, I wouldn't recommend doing this with a just a plain old drill (like I did)

If you know someone with a drill press I would recommend you go in that direction, a drill and good vise would work.  (This project made me miss my old workshop and house, living in a condo now)

First you will need to take off the old knob which is easy - on the shimano plate on the knob there is two small Phillips screws (pic 1), remove them and pop out the plate. (Pic 2)  It will expose a small brass colored nut, using a flat head screw driver remove it and the knob will slide off (pic 3), there it exposes the rivet that needs to be drilled out (pic 4) (one note there are some after market companies that makes high end knobs that you don't have to remove the rivet, and while I may go that route if I had a Stella, this process works just as good and if you are comfortable with a drill you should be fine)  

As you can see from the pictures below, there almost looks to be a divot where you can drill the rivet out, it does make life easier.  (Pic 5) I started off with a 3/16 drill
Bit, I know the instructions on the site say it's easily attached but I had to go up one size drill bit to make the hole a little bigger in order each of the knobs to fit my reels (pic 6, and 7 and #8 ) show the rivet drilled completely out.  Pic 9 is the finished product, one thing to note, at least on my two Shimano reels that I did was the inner assembly of the knob (not sure really what to call it) will not go all the way through the handle, it seems to be stable half way through the handle.  That would be the only feedback I would give to the makers of the knobs is to make the assembly a little longer that goes all the way through the handle part.  It's hard to take a picture of that but if you try it you will understand what I mean.

Pic 10 - finished Product.
Pic 11 was more of an experiment on my part, I had a Jumbo T bar handle also and I put in on my Saragosa 8000 and it was too big for the reel, I really think it would be too big for even the 14000 or 18000 - now the regular T -Bar handle is a different story, I am ordering two of them tomorrow from Smooth drag and I will post pictures what they look when I get them in.  Let me know if you have any questions.  I thought this may help some people searching for this and I thought it added value to the board.  Thanks

Pic 1 - Starting point



Pic 2 Screws and Shimano Plate off and exposing the brass nut



Pic 3 Knob is off and exposes the rivet that must be drilled out in order to use these knobs



Pic 4 another picture of the rivet



Pic 5 divot



Pic 6, 7, and 8 are Rivet drilled out (it takes some time if you are using a hand drill)







Pic 9 - is the finished product, I had an extra knob so I placed it on the floor next to it so show the order.  Mine came greased; it doesn't hurt to grease them up.



Pic 10 is the finished product on the 4000 and 8000, the 4000 could be a little too big, but I like it, makes the reel feel more stable to me.  



Pic 11 the jumbo t bar handle - WAY too big

[Dawn]

Thanks a lot for posting, good info here.

Dawn