John,
Do you remembered if the handle had a bit of vertical play in it? What I meant is if you remembered if the handle pulled out a couple of mm of play. My 400 developed this recently and when I took it apart, the black plastic gear that is held in place by the E-clip has a bit of play in it.
The handle normally has some axial play as the drive shaft moves in and out. This can cause some play in the black idle gear. However, I have not heard of this causing trouble. Under load generally there isn't play and it is of small concern, generally.
Overall the reel offers an amazingly capable package for the coin, but part of that lightweight character and resulting compromises mean such tolerance issues have to be accepted.
Its truly a dilemma...if the reel was tanked up a bit then even though it would be tougher people would probably complain about the weight and cost and that would hurt sales. "Performance for the weight and cost" versus "what the market will pay for" are competing here for hearts and minds.