This plugin might do what you want - though I haven’t used it, Eneroth’s plugins are generally well written and most are free:
Eneroth Component Replacer.
You can also use Reload to re-load any component in the model and replace it with another, but I seem to remember that works only one or more selected components - and if the handles are included in a larger component, you can only select them when you have the parent component opened for editing.