Removing the centre console

Technical Area Body, Interior & Styling
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  1. My model of MX-5 is: __NA
  2. I’m based near: __West Wales
  3. I’m looking for technical help or recommendations on: __removing the gear stick gaiter
    Hi folks - Put the old lady back on the raod after a few years in the shed and is working well. But the gear stick and centre console are heating up, so it’s time to replace the rubber boots and top up the oil in the turret. Easy I thought - ha! The consoile is off but I can’t remove the gaiter.
    It’s a special edition, but I don’t know which one - bought as an insurance write off that I restored but only the V5 documentation. It’s got cream leather seats and a wooden steering wheel and gear knob and was released in 1995 if anyone can help identify it. Whatever, the problem is the gaiter will not slip up the gear stick shaft - there’s a metal sleeve attached to the gaiter which seems to have three minute hex-screws holding it to the shaft but they are not shifting - I can drill out two of the but not the third - and I’d rather not.
    Anyone recognise the setup and know how to remedy this or do i simply butcher the thing??
    Thanks in advance
    Mike

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PS - If anyone checks my posts from last year about losing the key and the difficulty in getting a replacement - I found the key after I’d sorned the car again…

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I’d sacrifice it and get a used original gear knob.

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Thanks Robbie
Hoping not to take a grinder to it but I’m thinking it’ll end up that way too. I’ll wait a while and see if anyone has faced the same issue and fixed it but I doubt it. Those 3 grub screws are solid. Soaking them overnight in plusgas and hoping…
cheers Mike

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I would have thought you could have lifted the console enough, to get a stubbie screwdriver on the underside to loosen the 4 small screws holding the gaiter to the console. Then you can get the console out of the car. That will at least let you undo the lower boot and lift the gear lever, which looks rustier than any gear lever I have seen, out of the car to somewhere comfier to work on. The metal sleeve looks horrendous.

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Thanks - I can access the bolts for the upper boot, what’s left of it and then undo the lower boot. SO the gear lever just lifts out at that point?
M

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Get to the lower boot, and it will lift right out

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Indeed it does - thank you!
So the next question is how do I dismantle the gear lever to remove the lower boot - what’s left of it
and fit the new one? It must come apart as there’s no way it will slip over the ball at the bottom or in the sleeve at the top?? Only asking cause I can’t get the gaiter off the lever. see picture in previous post. A PO has mullered the 3 grub screws and they are not coming out

Thanks again
Mike

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With the gear lever out of the car, you will have a better shot of removing whatever that adapter is. I would not fancy taking an angle grinder to it in the car, without risking a slip. My first go would to to put it in a vice and give it a squeeze, and see it thats enough to release, or clamp, and drift out the gearlever. After that, I would probably decide to ditch the grubby aftermarket leather gaiter. The original gear lever is extremely rusty. Used ones are pennies, but don’t fit one from a Mk2.

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Hi
It’s out of the car and I’ve tried drilling the grub screws out. I’ll be investing in a new gaiter and gear knob as you suggested. Thi ssimple job has turned into a bit of a pain!

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Cut that affter market alloy casing down both sides and separate it off the gear shaft, we hit the same issue at the NEC on the OC stand on the project roadster…
M-m

2 Likes
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I’d be sourcing another gaiter, lever and knob.

1 Like
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Done - the wee Dremel came in handy and I have a replacement gaiter and gear knob ready to go. Just need a spare houre to finish the job now. Thanks again everyone for the advice.
Mike