Hi Gene, yes, better to ask than mar up a beautiful plated finish with improper procedure or tools. Luckily, I just happen to have an IT&T board member's Catalina here for a pre-fishing lube job.
This is the knob plate:
It MUST be unscrewed in a CLOCKWISE direction to remove it for access to the knob's internals.
Here is the correct tool from Daiwa/Japan to make that procedure happen:
It is placed into the center two bored holes in the plate's center:
And holding it tightly in those holes, rotational pressure in a clockwise direction will get it moving. Try to keep the tool perpendicular to the plane of the plate so as to not allow it to slip and mar the cap's gorgeous gunmetal plating.
Once the plate is removed you will see the Phillips screw down in there:
That unscrews COUNTER-clockwise.
Once you have the screw out, you can safely remove the knob from its shaft. You will find two black bushings inside, an upper and a lower. Also if you look closely there is normally two tiny, super-thin washers, sometimes made of beryllium copper, sometimes out of stainless steel. They reside UNDER the lower black bushing and take up any slack movement between the knob and the handle arm. Look hard for them, they are there, but frequently get overlooked on reassembly. If you do forget them, the knob will clank in and out, because of the increased knob/handle arm clearance. That would be unacceptable in such a high-end reel. All four of these components will cross over and must be used to install the EKFAN knobs in place of the factory Daiwa knobs. Mine matched right up, no further monkeying around was needed.
But as I wrote in an earlier post on this thread, sometimes EKFAN knobs do not directly cross over. This might be a result of bad machine work, but more likely its because some dumbell at Ekfan sent the wrong knobs. Hey, it happens. So to prelude this bad eventuality, be SURE to specify you want these knobs for a DAIWA reel, not Shimano or Abu. They are very nice knobs for a modest price, so I put up with the occasional muck-ups.
If you don't have the proper Daiwa factory tool to remove those plates, you can substitute a piece of hard plastic with a right angle. I used to use the compartment dividers from Plano plastic tackle boxes. Look here:
Basically you would jam the right angle of the plastic piece into one of the two plate center holes, turn clockwise, and hope for the best. These can sometimes slip and so could mar the knob's soft EVA, so some care must be taken, if carrying out this surgery with this type of "tool."
Under no circumstances do I recommend using a pair of jeweler's screwdrivers or any such metal tool to accomplish this work. One slip and you'll be calling The Tackle Trap to try to source yourself a new, unscratched knob plate.
For the record, the EKFan knob plates unscrew in the more usual COUNTER-clockwise direction. Use a hard plastic piece in the slot to remove/reinstall those too. No metal screwdrivers - which can badly burr up the anodized aluminum they are machined from.
When installing the plate back into either of the knob types, be sure to drip a few drops of medium-weight oil in there, to keep the bushings free-turning. I like 3-in-1 black for this. A light coat of grease on the threads of the plate itself will ensure that it will come off in the future, after repeated soakings in salt water.
How's that Gene? Have I addressed your question? ?
