I am trying to remove my center console to get the climate control unit out since I still think my defrost is wacky. I can't get the boot to pull off the knob. The knob loosens easily, but the boot spins with it. This isn't good since it's still attached at the bottom. I can see a short goldish color nut on the bottom of the threaded section of the shaft if i peek under the raised up console. It's a little loose. Above this is a ring or washer, can't really tell. I did search but only found 1 post for the '04-'05 knob & 1 by myf16 saying to pry from above to get the ring off the knob. If I pry, I will probably damage the boot. The boot comes up higher than it's attachment point & drops back in to the lever so I can't see anything other than boot. Like the mouth of a volcano. Is the Zanardi one different than the rest? What am I missing?
can't get shift boot & knob off
- Thread starter TyraNSX
- Start date
If it is the stock shift boot and knob, and your car is the same as my 93, the boot should have a chrome ring at the very top of it. Wedge a large flat head screw driver between the ring and the knob, and twist slightly...it should pop the boot loose. The factory knob has plastic tabs that click into the chrome ring (again...the chrome ring is part of the BOOT, not the knob). This should separate them, and the knob will screw right off. Hope this works. Joel
It doesn't have a chrome ring. Just thin black fake leather that goes into some sort of fastener at the bottom of the knob. Can't see it since the boot actually goes over & down toward the shaft obscuring what ever is under it (the thingie it is anchored into). I hopefully have a diagram showing the problem attached. The green line represents the ring under the boot (curved black lines). Heavy black line is the lever itself.
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If you're careful, you can do this job without removing the knob and boot. You have to be very careful not to scratch anything, since you'll just remove all the console screws and move the console piece to the side. I've done this a couple of times.
Upon further investigation, above the flange at the bottom of the shift knob there is a very tightly fastened ziptie around the boot. In a couple of spots it passes through small slits in the boot. It is so tight that is why the boot rotates with the knob. Is this stock? Should I cut it? Will I be able to get it back together the same way (just not so tight)? I DO NOT want to mess up this car. In the drawing, I updated the red line to be the ziptie, horiz. black bar is flange at bottom of shift knob, yellow line to represent nut & washer at bottom of threads on shifter.
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