Regarding the kicker knuckle:

I'd suggest taking it off once in awhile and giving the splines a good cleaning and a grease job.

I spent most of the evening last night with a cut-off tool, gear puller a chisel and a hammer taking mine off.

And that was after the previous night spent trying some other things: Heat, various levers and pry tools...then leaving it to soak in wd40.

I'd taken the thing off before for general cleaning, greasing and o-ring r/r....but obviously not as often as I should'a.

Might save someone a LOT of time!

Good point there guy. I try to grease/clean mine every month. I need to do some internal work now, the ratchet gears dont' grab all the time when I kick fast, have to push it down slow. THen when it grabs stomp.
Maybe I'll look into a shorter one too, my back hurts when I have to bring my leg up so high all the time.