(G) Stilo gear knob removal

Hi,

I've had a look through the forum but haven't found anything definitive. Can anyone confirm how they (successfully!) changed one?

Kind regards, Dan.

Havnt heard of anyone changing one other than cutting the stick ..so dont do that cos you naff up the reverse lift up lever..I think they might be pressed on the stick with great force and very hard to remove because of this ..

the knob has to be pressed off - it is press-fitted on a spline fitting and can be removed by making a tool from a M12 treaded bar and two kind of "forks" on it.
One side welded on the bar, the other welded on a bushing that can slide over the bar using a M12 nut and spacer ring.
By turning the nut upward the knob just pops off at the end...
This way all parts can be re-used if nessesary...

this is how the tool looks and some (too dark!) pictures of the shortened gear lever stick in my 1.6L Stilo...

Understood. What does the bottom end of the puller push against, is it simply the base of the gear stick or do you put some sort of plate over it to take the loading?

the fixed fork goes into the recess on the lower part of the plastic "lift-up" part (on top of the rectangular part) and the sliding fork fits directly under the gear knob just around the sliding bushing which is lifted for reverse gear (the knob has a hard plastic insert which can take the force).

I've sourced an original gear knob, could I simply prise the top off (which is the bit I've scratched up) and glue on the new cover? Would be a lot easier for me at the moment, I don't have much in the way of tools!

Cheers...

some more pictures - the gear lever mechanism is just for illustration, it does't have to be removed of course...

yes it is possible to prise off the upper part and glue a replacement part back on the rubber knob - i thought you also wanted to shorten the ugly lever !

That's not a bad idea, it's plenty long enough! For the time being I'll probably try changing the cap, anything I've done in tha past has had a detrimnental effect one way or another, FIAT don't build stuff to last me thinks Or I'm a heavy handed tw*t!!

Thanks for your help, it's much appreciated!

good god yellowstilo! that is rather creative! well done!

i hacked, chopped, burnt, mine till it came off piece by piece, then i used an angle grinder to take about 1.5" off the stick.

yours is soooooo short, it must be difficult to use? can you rest your arm on the armrest and still easily make gearchanges?

ooh and i loooove the surround, is it custom or nicked off an selespeed abarth?


hats off to you mate

using the armrest was also a problem with the original lever - I only use it during long highway trips.....
Of course changing gears needs some more force now but I like the feeling of it....short and firm stroke !
the surround is from a selespeed Abarth and was modified to allow the full stroke of the lever in all directions.
I also shortened the lift-up mechanism, I chopped it just below the second rim and glued the part on top which slides into the gear knob.
The surround makes it look even shorter - the lever was only shortened aprox. 6,5 cm....

That looks great Yellowstilo I'll be on the lookout for an Abarth gear surround now!

that looks mint, think you should shorten mine for mine?? how much you charge?? lol

im very impressed yellow stilo

i like the surround as well, eyes immediatly drawin to it, also i like the (i presume) radar detector? put behind it, lol