MP-44 Optimus knee repair?

So I was posing my MP-44 and decided to bend the figure's knees to create a kneeling pose, but then I noticed that the left lower knee joint seemed to have a lot of 'play' without the ratchet joint engaging, and the blue tab on the back of the knee wouldn't move into its slot. Meanwhile, the right knee was fine.

Unsure as to what was going on, I decided to dismantle to right knee to see what it was 'meant' to look like. i only disassembled the three screws at the knee joint itself - the silver-blue one and the two black ones. I then reassembled the right knee and did the same for the left. Not seeing anything substantially different, I reassembled the left knee, but now both knees seem to have the same issue. Also, I noticed that the larger of the two black screws doesn't have a 'stopping point' when tightening.

Has anyone else had this issue with play on the lower knee joint of their MP-44? Also, has anyone attempted this knee fix, which is sanding down a blue post in the knee and lubricating the joint, or even just the lubrication? I know about gluing the part with the tab, but I'd rather not do this.

A 3P company really needs to make an upgrade kit for the knees (or if they have, someone please provide a link!).
Yeah one of the knees on mine stopped working. It was fine, but then after the third transformation it wasn't (it's not because I was bending it in a wrong way or anything).
Tried doing the glue fix as you've linked but it didn't work for me unfortunately. For the time being I've just left it and accepted one knee will move differently to the other.

It's been a while since I looked at whats going on inside the knees, but from what I remember there are three separate parts that are all supposed to work together - only two of which have gear teeth.
Over time instead of using the gear teeth to move, two of the three parts start warping and rubbing past each other instead which is why you get that smooth action rather than a ratcheted one.
A really poor design IMO. They either should have used 2 pieces instead of 3, or made the parts die cast (why not both even considering what this fella costs).

Knowing them they would of added an extra 50 or so for the privilege

They should have just used normal ratchets. It was completely superfluous to have that extra tab slide into the knee part and subsequently break the knee ratchet if you bend at the wrong ratchet first (or just break over time).

I don't believe they bothered to fix it in the nemesis version either. I haven't tried the tfw fixes but the ones by brutiking work according to the forums. Saying that if it still poses for you and the bend doesn't give out I'm not sure its worth fixing. Just chalk it up to takara not caring or even acknowledging the issue, same with their hound.