Fitting the gear knob cotball sold me...

[The Fatty]

I fitted the gear knob I bought from cotball today - I was expecting a pretty straight forward job, how wrong I was!

Step 1 was to remove the old gear knob - I tried twisting it, but I got bored so decideded to cut it off instead. To do this, I cut a line from front to back all away around the knob, then used a screw driver to separatete the inner plastici bit. It then lifted off nice and easily. step 1 - done!

Step 2 was to modify the gear knob inside collar as the center hole was a bit to small. I drilled it out with a 12.5mm drill and it fitted perfectly step 2 done nice and easy!

Step 3 was to secure the collar to the shaft, then screw the knob onto collar - this is where it all went wrong (not cotballs fault, the guy in Germany that made them obviously didn't check them properly)! The thread on the collar and inside the knob did not match, and after about 2 turns, it got stuck (and no I did not cross thread it). I tried to undo it, but it was properly stuck. Luckily I didn't screw the inside collar onto the shaft very tight, so I was able to twist it off the shaft with the collar still inside. This meant I had to get the collar out, so I drilled 2 holes in the base of it, then made a tool much like the one that comes with an angle grinder as a key. The collar was so stuck inside that I had to put rubber around the ball and clamp it in a vice before I could get it to unscrew (took ages)! So then I had to tap the inner thread to match the collar helix, but I didn't didnt have a tap big enough! So I slowly used the collar along with some grease as a tap. After about an hour, I managed to get the threads matching






So back to the car, this time all went smoothly! And the results were worth it imo

[The Fatty]

hmm why arnt the pictures working?

[mr.pink87]

Looks really good. Need one aswell.

[pastieman]

Were did my post go ???

Love it and I want one !!!

[The Fatty]

am I right in thinking you guys can see the images then? They are just showing as image tags for me :s

[Matt Cup]

Can't see the pics.

[Shifty.]

Me neither

[Stu-]

same here. Seems quite a ball ache just for a gear knob mind!

[mr.pink87]

Just copied the URLs. Lazy folk you are.

[Stu-]

[The Fatty]

just realised it becasue I copy and pasted and it removed a '/' from the URL!





So back to the car, this time all went smoothly! And the results were worth it imo

[Shifty.]

I've ordered one of these off eBay so it looks like I'll have to have a tinker to get it to fit and I'll have to use tour method as I have no threading tools at all.

Does look good though.

[Matt Cup]

Looks pretty good that

[The Fatty]

thanks

I've ordered one of these off eBay so it looks like I'll have to have a tinker to get it to fit and I'll have to use tour method as I have no threading tools at all.

Does look good though.

Yeah when you do it, just make sure you do it slowly doing a small bit at a time and every so often clean the grease out and apply new. If you dont, it locks up pretty tight again (i over did it a couple of times and had to put it in the freezer to get things to shrink). Mind you, the new batch might not have the problem!

[Dan@M.A.D]

Looks great mate,

Can't believe they were wrong from the guy in Germany, I have almost got the redesigned knob ready now, A week or two and they will be done.

Very sorry for the hassle mate, I honestly had no clue! , i will do you a new design one for free when they are done

I have some pretty decent machinery in the workshop and out machine guys are great so there won't be any issues.

[The Fatty]

Thanks cotball thats very kind of you & I'm now looking forward to it! What design have you gone with for the new ones? Theres no way you could have known about the thread/helix on these german ones without trying to put one on. I was lucky I had the tools to correct it

[Dan@M.A.D]

Thanks cotball thats very kind of you & I'm now looking forward to it! What design have you gone with for the new ones? Theres no way you could have known about the thread/helix on these german ones without trying to put one on. I was lucky I had the tools to correct it

There will be two possibly 3 designs, One will be a plain ball with no writing on it, One with the different gear numbers like the standard renault one & finally one with renaultsport engraved. I spoke to a guy earlier today who can engrave the material with pretty much anything. I have ordered the aluminium bar in and that should be with me Thursday.

[Lal B3N]

Looks great. I will have on of those when the new ones are ready Cotball.

[pastieman]

Cotball I will be interested also

[Shifty.]

I'll hold off till cotballs are ready and just hold on to or sell on the one I've bought off eBay.