1987 thru 1989 g-50 shift knob extension DIY

[captainlewis]

After not being able to find an aftermarket kit to extend my g-50 shift knob height I decided to make one, I am tall with an injured wrist and an old shoulder which makes it difficult to reach down and forward for 1st , 3rd and 5th shifts. It turned out to be very simple to make. It may not be glamorous and will certainly make the stock classics guy cringe gut it does work. The diagram parts that are marked with blue are what you need to buy or make to do the job I think it was under 12 bucks. These parts are

1 8mm 1.25 thread stud continuous thread x 130 mm

3 8 mm nuts

3 8mm lock washers

1 flat washer

1 metal bushing thin wall to allow 8mm stud to pass through and fit inside the knob
up against the bottom of the metal sleeve for cap screw in the diagram

The procedure is pry off the shift patter cap on your shift knob.

Unscrew the 8 mm cap screw and remove the shift knob.

screw the 130 mm stud into the shift lever hole ( about one inch deep) thread a lock washer and 8 mm nut and tight them locking the stud in place.

thread another 8m nut about an 1" 1/2" down from the top of the stud and add a small flat washer, and slip on the bushing you found or made that will fit wall the way through the knob up against the bottom of the metal sleeve that is pressed into your stock
knob. NOTE This stock sleeve has a few threads at the bottom, and then becomes just a tube to guide the original cap screw to travel through the top of the knob, if you don't add the spacer bushing when you tighten the nut at the top of knob later it will pull the sleeve out slowly as you tighter your top nut on the stud as I found out. Screw the knob on to the stud making sure you index the know in a way that your shift indicator cap indexes correctly right side up, leaving enough thread to add a lock washer and 8mm nut, you don't want excess stud threads to stick up to hight or shift knob cap won't seat all the way in.

The stud is locked in position at the bottom against the shift lever with the stud bottomed out in a one inch hole in the lever. If need to shorten height you can allows loosen the lock nut turn the whole know and stud out and shorter the stud to allow for as shortening adjustment.

once your sure that the adjustment is correct you can remove the stud knob and all assemble and slip the 3/8 hose over the stud and 13 mm nuts which you will have to force into the hose. a little tricky while you are trying to tighten the bottom nut against the shift lever and then pull the hose down over the edge of the shifter end when you finish I had to clamp the hose back from the nut with a hose clamp, tighten the not remove the clamp and force the hose down. I may come up with a nicer cover but may will leave it the way it is.

Keep all your stock parts incase you want to put it back like it was.

if you need a larger copy of the diagram send me a PM with your email and I will send it to you.

[Noah930]

The procedure is pry off the shift patter cap on your shift knob.

Unscrew the 8 mm cap screw and remove the shift knob.

This was very helpful. I wanted to replace my OEM shift knob (on which the leather was disintegrating) with one of the 917-style ones from slodave. I couldn't get a consensus on how to remove the original one without destroying it (in case I wanted to recover it). But on my '87 (built in January of that year), this was the method of attachment. No crush sleeve. FWIW, the plastic cap with the gear shift pattern had 3 prongs, with the central one at the 12:00 position. I had a 6 mm allen bolt, though.