Miata Mailing List: March 2000, Message #93

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I had this EXACT, well mine was facing forward, problem - it doesn't matter,
the point is you want it OFF, right?

trying to get it off on the car is a vain effort, trust me. These knobs are
supplied with gobs of loctite and in my case they used enough to swamp a 40'
yacht. 

Remove the shift assembly from the car. It's a little tricky because you
cant just lift the leatherette boot over the lever as is traditionally done,
instead you have to unscrew the plate that holds the leather boot to the
console - there are four screws, one in each corner. If you need more
detailed instructions for getting the lever out there is a photopoint page
somewhere????

Anyway, if you don't want to ruin the leatherette boot (Mine was torn and
replacement w/ a much nicer real leather boot is only $25) then you'll have
to work around it. My trouble was that I couldn't unscrew the metal shield
at the base far enough to get at the set screws (not that it would have
mattered, more on that later). Since I couldn't reveal the screws if
ViceGripped the shift lever and tried twisting, pulling, etc the know off to
no avail. I then began banging the end the knob (shielded with a cloth and
block of wood) trying to "break" something loose. After 20-30 good wacks
with nothing apparently happening I considered price checking a new shift
lever. 

I decided, at this point saving the knob might be a lost cause, so I took a
chisel to the ridge that was exposed with the collar shield unscrewed as far
as it would go. Slowly, but surely the wooden section began to back off of
it's metal shaft - oh, well. I eventually got the wooden part completely off
and was left with an aluminum center piece w/ set screws attached to an
aluminum threaded sleeve loctited to the lever. Unfortunately I still could
not get to the set screws so I vicegripped the aluminum center piece
(previously inside the wood) and tried to twist it off. My hope was that
both the pieces of aluminum would come off, but alas the loctite was
stronger, much stronger than the set screws so I began carving a track in
the inner sleves w/ the set screws. I managed to get this piece far enough
up the shaft, maybe 1mm, which was enough to wedge a size to small allen in
and undo the set screws.

So, now I had just the inner sleeve that was threaded onto the shaft. I
vicegripped that and just started desparately trying to twist it off. After
about 20 minutes of various positions, grip strengths and an assistants help
we finally got the *@#%@ thing backed off of their revealing more loctite
than I've ever seen in ANY application before.

What I deduced had happened during the install was that the installer had
fastened the knob to the inner collar, then screwed the entire assembly onto
the lever - leaving essentially NO way to get things off w/out hurting
something. I'm sorry this got so long, but I hope it helps. Let me know if
you get it off as it will be a day of victory and celebration ;-).

-- 
Travis 

'95 Black
Team Y2K2AK or bust!

> From: robert mcbrien <rmcbrien@yahoo.com>
> Reply-To: robert mcbrien <rmcbrien@yahoo.com>
> Date:  Wed, 1 Mar 2000 14:09:12 -0500
> To: Multiple recipients of list <miata@realbig.com>
> Subject: unremovable  shift knob
> 
> I just bought a '96 that has a Momo wooden shift knob
> that is facing backward.  The problem is that I can't
> turn it.  I've applied enough force that I can feel
> things starting to flex, then I back off for fear of
> bending something expensive.  Any suggestions?
> 
> Robert in Denton, TX
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