gear knob removal

[woodside]

gear knob - 1992 E30 320i conv.

how do I remove it ? - sorry for stupid question.

but dont want to push/pull twist and knacker it

thanks
david

[Ziggy]

Pull, don't hit yourself in the face with it when it comes off.

(You'd have got an even quicker answer if you'd have done a search!)

[dsio]

Exactly how hard do you have to pull it?

Ive got a momo knob on mine, but would an aftermarket knob come off the same way, or do different makers do it differently?

[smithy318i]

Just pull.
If it doesn't come off... Pull harder.

[dsio]

OK, I just did what you said and now my linkage has fallen apart. The broken circlip is on the ground and the lever has come off the selector rod, but the ball is still in the shift plate which has always been broken.

Oh, and the knob is still on. :\

[smithy318i]

Im genuinly sorry if our advise has broken your car, but the shift knob should have come off a lot easier than the amount of force needed to break the shifter!
can you put it back together? Im not sure which bit is broken!

[dsio]

Ive taken it apart once and put it back together ok, so its no problem lol. Just a pain in the arse getting it up on stands again. I wouldnt care so much if this damned knob came off.

Its a momo knob, with a small metal collar at the base.

See this knob here http://www.m8auto-tec.co.uk/catalog/ima ... orblue.jpg

How it has a metal collar at the bottom, I dont know if that needs to come off first to release it on momo knobs or if it is just stiff.

[tourer-dan]

oops.

unscrew the metal collar and use an allen key to unscrew the 3 grub screws holding it onto the selector lever......

Genuine ones just pull off, but the momo ones have nasty pointy grub screws than hold on very, very tight.

[dsio]

Yer my car that used to have a working gearbox would be proof of that lol.

I unscrewed the collar, but it wont go down far enough to expose the screws (though i can see the tops of them).

I get the impression that the top skinny part of the lever can extend from the thicker part of the lever some how else it never could have been screwed on. How can I take the lever apart?

[tourer-dan]

Jesus, just cut the collar off and buy a replacement. Life's too short to stuff a mushroom.

It must have been wedged down a bit more after it was fitted.

[dsio]

Dude its steel and about 4mm thick at the base with no angle to cut into it. There has to be a way to get the short part of the lever to come upwards a bit.

[tourer-dan]

It's a single piece. can you not push the collar down as far as it will go, then see if you can lever the knob up a bit against it, with something like a wrecker bar? Then you could get to the screws.

[dsio]

OK, If I used a blow torch on the knob (screw the knob) it would expand the base, allowing it to come up?

This sounded so damned simple when I bought the new Z3 woodgrain knob. Pop one off, pop one on. lol.

[tourer-dan]

If your going to ruin the whole thing, just drill out one of the grubs then it should come away.

[woodside]

thanks - Ill give it a pull then - tried and it wouldnt come off.

my cossie one used to come off quite easily - especially changing quickly from 1st to 2nd gear - whoops - gear knob in hand, car in neutral and car revving like a tractor.


ziggy - searchings a great tool, but to be honest - you could spend half a day and still not come up with the answer, although you might know how to change the whole gearbox by then.

[Gwynleym10]

ziggy - searchings a great tool, but to be honest - you could spend half a day and still not come up with the answer, although you might know how to change the whole gearbox by then.