Help!!! Losing the Battle With My Shift Knob!
 

Hey everyone - well i got a new shift knob from UPR (for splined shifters)for my '06 and went to take off the old one after lots of reading on how to do so on here and im having a helluva time. I first heated it up with a hair dryer and pulled till my eyes almost popped out and the thing didnt budge - then i put an adjustible wrench under it and hit up with a hammer as hard as i could and still no luck. Then i went to home depot and rented a hot air gun, cut off the outher rubber part so now its just white plastic - and went to town on it with the hot air gun, pulling and hammering along the way - it got so how the plastic started to melt so now all i have is a white half melted blob on the end of my shifter and no matter what i cannot get it off - what can i do!?!?!?! Im thinking of just getting a new shift arm and replacing the whole thing because this sucker is on for good (or so it seems)! Thanks for the help and ideas guys.

haha its an 06 man, that glue is hard as heck... now a my truck 93 should be easy

yeah its prob glued on, start cutting the plastic off or get a chisel and hammer.

LOL.....my shift knob on my 01 just popped off while shifting to 3rd......nothing that hot glue wouldn't fix....LOL

also when i had a closer look at the plastic after i kinda melted it i could see what looked to be a chunk of steel under the plastic ball - is this just in there for weight and the arm is glued to the plastic bottom of the knob or is the arm glued into the steel on the new shift knobs?

there is metal under the plastic. When i took mine off my 03 i took a blow torch to it and melted the white plastic almost entirely off. it took about 10-15 minutes total to get it off but eventually it came off. Just be careful while melting the plastic but it will come off

when you say metal under the plastic do you mean just in 'the ball' - like the shift arm isnt glued to the metal? If so how did u get the metal off the shift arm - also how did u melt it all off without screwing up your shift boot because if you heated it that much wouldnt the arm get hot and melt the shift boot lower down? Thanks for the help.

you can take the whole shifter arm off the thing then weld or w/e on it... you can move the shift boom about 5-6 inches down, I rmember I took off my whole arm to work on a console...

If i had a standered truck i would have to make it a short throw so your not shifting from 1st to 2nd going 1ft.....but i would take a torch and heat up the rod.....by getting it hot the glue will melt, and it will come off.......if you just heat the plastic up it will melt and nothing will get the glue hot...

When i had my car i took the shifter off, cut it in like 4 pieces and moved the pivot point up 2inchs, and made it a really short throw. We also did it on my friends s10

Rocky

hey guys thanks for the help - my only worry is that if i do take off the shift arm there is no way to the get the boot off of it because it gets fatter lower down so if i heat up the arm with a torch to get the ball off than wherever the rubber boot is touching the arm it will melt too - any ideas? May just have to do it and get a redline....this is turning into a pain in the @#$

Brady,


This is what I did for my '05.

Heat the plastic again. Then get a friend to hold the shift arm in place, preventing it from twisting while you try to turn what's left of the knob with a big pair of pliers or pipe wrench. It'll need to be twisted off clockwise, but take it slowly.

Try it, it worked easily for me.

so yours was threaded not splined?

lol same here! that's when I knew it was time for a new, but much cooler one :biggthump

the ones on those new 07s are leather with metal display I want one

^^whhhat??? im gonna have to investigate this as my hurst knob is lookin like crap and I want a leather one

go to ford.com look at the new ranger interior I see one of those F-150 shift knobs, there nice as all get out...

Sort of...but not really....just was easier to come off when you tried to turn it versus trying to pull it straight off.

...emerged victorious...
 

thanks man - worked like a charm!

sweet get some pics of this new shift knob...

ya my shifter on my 98 popped off shifting into second. I epoxyed it on, bad idea, especially when I went to replace my transfer case(much easier to get the bolts up top from inside the cab). I had to take a big pair of chanell locks and just twist as someone held it, it broke, but we were able to get it off. now I have the hurst shifter super glued on.lol

ya i just went to home depot and got the biggest pair of vice grips they had - clamped onto that lil' som'B and twisted untill it hurt - eventually it just cracked and came right off (did all this in the homedepot parking lot then returned the vice grips haha) - ill post pics of the new one this week...thanks for the help guys...

My 00 came off shifting to 2nd in 100 degree heat. You might try that.