Please help me reattach these finials before I waste any more hours of my life

[64PooLane]

Here is my IKEA curtain rail. Removed finial to remove and wash curtains. It just unscrewed, no drama, easy.

I am ready to put them back up now and it WILL NOT REATTACH. I've tried masses of different loosening/unscrewing/rescrewing strategies. Have been sitting here nearly an hour cursing it. It just doesn't engage with whatever was holding it into the pole before.

I tried unscrewing the other one, thinking 'if I pay careful attention I will see what I need to do' and the same arsing thing happened! It just fell off nearly and became instantly, uselessly un-reattachable.

wtf have I done? Anyone else got these?

If you shake the pole does it rattle, like there was something loose that they screwed into before?

Sorry, that's not helpful, especially as if they do rattle I have no other suggestion

Nope, no rattling ...

Hmm... That's baffling! Why won't they screw back in then? WHY?!

Can you screw the clear white plastic bit on the bolt/screw part further up towards the fancy end of the finial and hopefully giving you a longer screw that will reach inside of the pole and 'engage' with the part it's suppose to be screwing into?

holdint eh white plastit bit in your left and the metal part in your right, will it undo?

Uou should end up with a white plastic piece with screws either end, one short, one long.
Slot the platic part into the pole and screw into the fising that is just done the pole, this should leave a shirt thread sitting out of the pole, screw the metal onto it.

if that doesnt work, give up, have wine.

Tote that approach makes the outer parts of the finial hold more tightly together, but it doesn't actually make the end of the screw 'grab' anything inside the pole.

*holdint eh white plastit bit in your left and the metal part in your right, will it undo?

Uou should end up with a white plastic piece with screws either end, one short, one long.*

It undoes, but the screw is fixed to the outermost knob. I end up with three pieces, thus:

But thank you both for the suggestions!

Thats it, now take the ball bit off too, if you ccan.

You should end with a long threaded piece, like a screw with no head.
Pop the white piece on an end and carefully put that end into the pole. it should screw into the hole you see down the pole.

you should end up with a thread sticking out of the pole, thread the metal onto it, then screw on the ball.

The ball doesn't come off though! It's attached.

I'm sure a fundamental law of physics is being violated here.

The plastic bit should be lodged in the pole and the rest screws through it to stay in place.

I wonder if the bit inside could have been pushed down the pole somehow, so the screw can no longer reach.

But I can't see how that could have happened - with the second finial it was instantaneous. It came off and I absolutely immediately wouldn't go back on. I didn't poke around inside the pole or anything.

Aha wowfudge, so it shouldn't have come out in the first place? strokes chin I've put it aside now to get on with life but will try taking it off and shoving it in and update later.

FFS, I'm so woefully shit at formatting. No wonder a finial is defeating me.

Can you not get the instructions off the ikea website