I shall scope these areas out. Thanks for the tips.

I made use of the leather cushion tip and used a modest heat gun. Both caps came off w/o any damage. Heat gun was a hobby type, like from Michael's st...

I used a small plastic spring clamp with the pads removed to aid in reassembly. It left just enough room to finagel the "end clip" back on the post.

Thanks for the advice. I will try a heat gun, my challenge will be not to booger up the threads. I think the cap is stainless steel? So it can g ta...