Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Three Wheeler & Super 3 Loose gear shift knob

After replacing the compensator and bevel box, I'm down to one niggling problem; a loose gear shift knob. There doesn't seem to be a set screw, it doesn't screw tight or untighten. Has anyone figured out how to remove or tighten the knob? By the way, now that the above mentioned problems have been fixed, my Morgan is as much fun as I had hoped. No problems since. I hope that's not a jinx. Larry S.

Unscrew the lower part of the knob and you will find grub screws that you can tighten.

Thanks, on my list for tomorrow. LS

But, how? I just can´t get the lower part off, no matter what I do.
Any good tips on how to do it?

Yes...
Wrap Duck Tape tightly round the lower bit, get a pair of grips and simply do it. The tape should stop the teeth on the grips damaging the collar.
But you may mark the collar...I did. But the marks can be polished out.

Eventually.

Good luck....!

Mine comes off regularly so I carry an allen key with me for a quick roadside fix.
Over the winter I'm going to drill some indents into the gear lever so the grub screws positively locate into them and loctite the little buggers in.

Had to do that on my series 3 Alfa Spider, worked a treat.

I use loctide

When purchased Aldermog had a lose gear knob. Removing it revealed one screw missing and the others tightened almost to the point of falling out the other side in a vain attempt to secure the knob.

Removing it all I found that the gear lever on the Roadster is an alloy casting that has been machined to a round at the end. So the set screws can bite nicely into the alloy, but if they are not properly tightened they damage the shaft, as had happened.

I had to re-finish the end of the shaft, first repairing the deep pits gouged by the set screws with Epoxy aluminum filler and then secured the knob with new grub screws, tightened firmly with but a dab of thread lock "to be sure". Getting new grub screws was interesting, they are a metric thread but a non standard length, so I had to cut them down and file new points on the end.

The replacement cost of the shift knob, were it to be stolen or lost, is quite expensive ($120 according to the dealership). You can go to ebay, or wherever, and get any shift knob with the standard Mazda MX-5 thread pattern for a replacement.

After seeing Asbojohns 3 ball shift knob, I went on a search for something similar - beware, all pool ball shift knobs are not created equal. The one that I ended up buying from ebay was very good though, fit well, good quality materials and metal threads, only $20.