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Been like that for a long time as everyone says. I think it is excellent engineering as far as material choice. Think about it. There is usually no appreciable stress on the level wind drive gear so nylon should last forever...BUT..if something DOES go wrong, I want the weak part that is likely to break to be a $1.50 nylon gear rather than the gear holding and so pushing the damage down the line to more of the reel or something else that is more expensive and harder to replace.

The good news is that once you've done that a dozen times or so (like I have) you recognize the symptoms in a flash and can set it right easily. Good tips here, and I'll add one more. Try getting a large Gallon sized freezer bag and put your reel into it while you remove stuff like "e" clips and springs. saves some time crawling around looking for them if you slip.

They are my go to shop. Why wouldn't you be buying what you think you are buying? Are you just suspicious of anyplace that isn't American? Does paying a jacked up $100 more for the same reel seem safer to you? Of course you are. They are a legit shop. I've bought maybe 19 reels from them and even in the middle of Covid they offer free shipping that got to my house in the Midwest within 2-4 days. Just buy it already...

I have bought nothing but JDM reels for years now, but I can't answer your questions because I've never run into a problem that required warrantied. If I did have a problem I would likely just fix it myself or send it to the shop. i wouldn't worry too much about really.

I call the guys at The Tackle Trap and have them send the correct ones.

The way I see it is that if I don't already know what I need next, then I probably don't need anything yet. If I don't like a set up I have, I would replace it. I might be looking to upgrade a rig or I might have bought a rig for a particular application and it didn't quite work out and need to try something else. I might need a new rig to try a new technique. I might need to duplicate a set-up I already have so I don't have to retie to throw a second chance lure on a missed short bite. I might even just see something that I want for no good reason. But in any case I already know what I want. I guess I don't really understand your question. Why do you want a new rig if you don't know what you want?

You could drill the old one out. You have to put the old rivet in a vice. But I am going out on a limb a little bit here and say that a reel with riveted knobs is probably not a venerated and valuable reel that would have it value decimated unless it were in original configuration, so if it were mine, I'd just buy a replacement handle from one of the 1000's out there for $10-$20. They are probably better handles than the original.

On an SLX I think I would just go for a $20 e-bay handle. I doubt you would ever know the difference.

Bingo...This is why I brought it up to the OP. There is no need to consider the "no touch knob" when deciding between the 2 reels since they both do the same thing.

Check out the TFO Tactical rods. Had a 7'5 for summer deep Carolina rigs and it was a very decent rod. Not overly sensitive, but usually a long heavy rod isn't used to do anything that requires it to be. The build and quality are good and it's a nice smooth and powerful blank.

Yeah. I think the idea was to remedy the problem they were having with many people who did not know how to set up their reels properly and who would instead use the old gravity drop method of setting the tension or worse yet use the spool tension as a part of their brake adjustments.. Then they would complain about how their Daiwa won't cast very far or is too wild. The tension should be set to match the spool not the bait. Use the brakes to compensate for weight if you have to. So the idea is to hype some "no touch" gimmick in the propaganda and then make the handle hard to turn and set it at the factory. I agree with you that there is no way the factory is going to get it right for everyone or everything especially the people who know what they are doing and know what they want. But, I'd bet that what the factory sends out is a whole lot better than what the clueless would have ended up with had they tried to adjust it themselves. It is probably a good thing that some folks believe the marketing.

Yes, It has confused you for sure. I can only pass the info. You do as you wish with it.

Never mind the "zero adjust knob" it works just the same as the old one . They just made it hard to turn.

LOL, not too far removed, but the one I had was I'm sure made in the 40's or 50" as it was old and beat when I got it in 62. We would only use it to put a big catfish river weight on it and bottom fish for river cats. For many years that is what I figured you did with "baitcasters". For crank baits and stuff you actually had to cast I thought that you had to have either a spinning reel or a spin-caster.

Jeez my first baitcaster was something branded as Tru-Temper. A clunky round reel loaded up with multicolored braided line. I think they had a lot of nerve calling it a "caster" though. I'd give $10 to see anyone cast anything on that reel. My Dad gave it to me on a matching Tru-Temper steel casting rod back about 1962 or so. I switched to the old Zebco 33 and then the Johnson Century. Back then no one was using bait casting reels as we now know them, they didn't exist. When I was a bit older, I swithed to the new fangled "open-faced" reels. It wasn't until the early 90's before I finally realized that the modern bait caster was a thing.

Not me, I have Daiwa, Shimano, ABU, and Pflueger reels and I put them on what seems to be most suitable to me. That said, I don't have any Shimano rods and only a few Daiwa rods. I have mostly Megabass and ABU rods, and am removing the ABU's from service as I replace them with Kistlers and Custom North Fork Builds. Well, I prefer that they match so they look pleasing, and that is pretty easy when I build my own. Otherwise a few color coordinated bling bits helps. Then there are a few cases that they just aren't going to match appearance well...but so be it...

I bought one from them a month or so back. Ended up right around $300 What's it to you?

You assumed correctly, I happened to have the parts sitting around this time, but I still had to buy those parts at some point. You know how it is when you start fooling with stuff. A couple of wrong parts here and there, some ordered as spares and experiments, some projects that get sidelined, changed colors, didn't work out, and etc. and the next thing you know you've got a couple of boxes of stuff...I know some guys who are sitting on dozens of spools.

That is sort of true. But really I can find a decent handle for about $30 and I think the spool cost me around $70. But even if I did have to put $200 into it, I would be OK with it I think. I am getting a reel that is better made than most anything on offer today and a reel that even used examples that are not in new condition can go for $300-$350. Oh, and I wasn't born with a stash of reel parts. I just ended up with one because I get a better reel for less money if I buy older top of the line reels and do some maintenance and upgrades on them, than I end up with if I just buy the same old middle of the road stuff that they sell new. And even the top of the line stuff now is arguably inferior to some of it made a few years ago. I just bought a Scorpion MGL, Metanium 20, and a Bantam MGL new a couple of months ago too, so it's not like every reel has to be a gold nugget. And not every old model is worth fooling with. But some are and I'm glad when I find them.

Substantial is not a word that I associate with a top notch bass rod. Sounds to me like you are shopping for a fishing rod the same way you'd shop for a lawn mower, looking for the heavy duty strong build. It doesn't really work that way though. You can find tough and heavy (like that Ugly Stick), but that is about all you'll get out of it. Mostly the less build stuff is on the rod and the lighter it is the better. If you are used to the old 6' fiberglass rods, it is a different world now.

And guys that think like me encourage you to keep thinking like you do. Yesterday I received a Daiwa SV 103 that is brand new but missing the handle and spool for $200. 20 minutes later it has a Steez handle and an SV 103 spool. Great reel for the price of some pedestrian reel like a Tat or Curado...

Looks like M2.5x5 and M2.5x8 to me.Round head. I wouldn't worry too much about exact head size and all that. Shimano isn't custom making weird screws for their reels. If nothing else order a set from Hedgehog Studio, you even get to pick your color.

I have the HMX 76H as well...Great rod if you like fishing with insensitive pool cues. It's not my most hated rod (that honor goes to the Abu Vendetta) but it's almost as bad. The only thing I use it for is trolling big old DT-22 and DT-28 crankbaits for Stripers. In that rare case the sensitivity doesn't much matter and the broom stick nature of the rod is actually sort of desirable. The HMG and even the Eagle series of Fenwick rods are OK for the money, but you can keep the HMX.

You have to be careful bending rods by hand. It's OK to pull on the tip to bend it IF you are holding onto the handle ONLY. But if you pull on the tip and you are holding the rod in the other hand not on the handle...they can snap like a twig. The closer to the tip that you are holding the quicker it will snap. Most rod tips are hollow. I do have a few solid tip rods, but they are kind of special purpose and are even easier to break.

I've bought from them quite a few times. My stuff gets here in 3 days usually. I'm in the Midwest.