Yeah Index Hooker,
I have all three of those problems you described with my 2500.

As far as the handle screw coming loose, I tighted that bugger down real tight and now its not a problem but i check it allllll the time to be sure.

The line looping on the lil guide on tha bail, its a quick fix that i am sure to check all the time cause it sure would suck to hook into that bigun and bust off cause of a loop!

And the free spooling.....I hooked quite a few Silvers this year to have the reel start going backwards on me with no indication and the anit-reverse switch still in the locked position.

It definitely keeps you on your toes, but I still love the reel but these problems are cronic with me, I have just learned how to deal with em.