DV8 Offroad D-JP-180017-BL Billet Door Surround Knobs for 97-06 Jeep Wrangler TJ & Unlimited

Quality machine work...beautiful part. First one failed on installation! LH thread between knob and shaft relies on red loctite to hold it together. This is bound to fail. If dv8 would have simply drilled a hole into the edge of the threaded shaft and knob and put a roll pin in problem would be solved. Sadly I am having to return them.

First off, beautiful part, fine CNC lathe work, engineering not so much. Price point is awesome. Knob is aluminum, shaft is stainless steel. Like I said, beautiful until you go to install. The thread between the knob and shaft is red locktited left hand thread that is half the diameter of the thread for the surround. This leaves one in an awkward position for install. If the shaft encounters the smallest amount of resistance during install, the knob unscrews from the shaft. I believe that is why they choose left hand thread for the knob, ease of removal. It makes it a bear to install tho. Some suggestions to improve the part in the future, and the first 2 would save them on machine time:

1) thread to shaft size on knob side, this will increase the surface area of the threaded joint, and therefore making more resistance compared to the surround side.

2) eliminate the thread all together, and press fit the knob to the shaft.

3) thread through knob and use a jam nut, but thread diameter still needs to be addressed.

Reason for 1 star review: 5 stars for the beauty of the part. 5 stars for the price point. -9 for the difficulty of installing them, if you can't install them, they're useless no matter how pretty or inexpensive they are.