My wife’s dumb cat chewed up the factory daiwa Eva power knobs on two of my reels. I replaced them with gomexus power knobs. 
I did something wrong though and on both reels the knobs are tight. I mean they do not freely turn. They’ll turn but there’s resistance. Makes reeling not smooth. 

I put them on in this order: 

 

small little metal washer, bushing, bearing, knob, bearing, tighten screw 

 

What’s my problem here? 

Sometimes you don't need the washer. Also, don't tighten the screws all the way - dab some blue loctite on the threads so they don't move. 

I’ll try taking the washer out and backing the screw off a bit. 
 

Do you know what the little rubber o-ring looking things that came with the knobs were for?

Pull the washer and try again. I've noticed on Daiwas it needs to be removed when switching from bushing to bearing. 

Stupid cat. This is why I hate doing my own work in things. It never goes right. I’m just not handy lol

8 hours ago, Cbump said:

My wife’s dumb cat chewed up the factory daiwa Eva power knobs on two of my reels. I replaced them with gomexus power knobs. 
I did something wrong though and on both reels the knobs are tight. I mean they do not freely turn. They’ll turn but there’s resistance. Makes reeling not smooth. 

I put them on in this order: 

 

small little metal washer, bushing, bearing, knob, bearing, tighten screw 

 

What’s my problem here? 

Remove a shim at a time until the knobs free up without excessive play.

Only have one shim in there so hopefully it’s enough lol

8 minutes ago, Cbump said:

Only have one shim in there so hopefully it’s enough lol

Mine came with quite a few.  Check to see if you don't have shims hiding stuck to bearings.

Same. Mine came with a bunch but I only put 1 in

If the knob is still tight after the removal of the shim when disassemble the knob to its components.  Inspect the post on the handle to make sure an old shim from the old knobs isn't stuck to the handle (this happens).  Check to make sure there isn't any shims hiding on the top bearing by removing both bearings and fishing around inside both ends of the gomexus knob.  Reassemble with just the two bearings and knob.  There should be some play.  Add shims to remove play.  Also the spare o-ring is a gasket for the knob caps.  If for whatever reason the knob is still tight with no shims then swap out a bearing for a stock daiwa bushing.  I like them on the bottom.  Those are always the 1st bearings to go from water intrusion.  A bushing there is beneficial imo.  

Hopefully I can get It to work with what I have because I’m an idiot and after installing them, I swiped all the spare gomexus parts and daiwa stock stuff into the trash. ?‍♂️

If for whatever reason the knob is still tight the solution is going to be to get Daiwa knob bushings.  They are a bit thinner than the bearings and can even be sanded down if needed.  

14 hours ago, JediAmoeba said:

Sometimes you don't need the washer. Also, don't tighten the screws all the way - dab some blue loctite on the threads so they don't move. 

This was It. Backed the screws off a half turn and bam, smooth as butter. 

First thing to keep that problem from creeping up again is to get rid of the cat....?