Gear lever knob and gater replacement

[neilto]

There has been a few threads on this but not a proper "how to" so I did a bit of an explore last night to see what was involved. Got a nice new wooden gear lever knob from ebay that will look good with its tan/beige interior and there is a new leather gaiter on its way to replace the vinyl frayed one on now.

Easily managed to undo the trim at the bottom of the gaiter and achieve the inverted umbrella effect. Hard to see how to undo the clip that retains the top of the gaiter and propably holds on the knob. Other threads have suggested this need cutting off and then persumably a new jubilee clip is required for the rebuild. The clip is pretty substantial and hard to get to so good strong cuters will be required.

The gearchange is a bit notchy especially involving 2nd gear so im thinking of stripping cleaning and lubricating the PTFE ball and socket arrangement at the bottom of the gearstick. This seems to be secured with a large circlip so my plan is to undo this and pull the gearstick out. I've done this before with a BMW when fitting a shortshift and I recall it needing a strong tug to pop it out. If any one else has done this feedback would be appreciated.

I'll attempt to photograph the procedure with a view to creating a how to.

[Cylon2007]

The original clip is a squeezed on type that does need to be cut off. I replaced mine with a small jubilee clip. I got it off by gripping the part of the clip that has been squeezed together and twisting back and forth and it snapped of.

[d4mo]

I managed to get the clip off mine but using a small screwdriver and prising it open, the plan was the reuse the clip but i couldnt find anything suitable in my garage to crimp it back together and ended up using a jubilee clip.

I took a few pics and posted a little how to on a friends site.

http://car-worx.com/vw-pasat-gear-gaiter-replacement/

[KieranM]

I recently replaced my gaiter, I would suggest that if you are not replacing the knob itself, buy the whole lot from fleebay or dealer - I think buying the complete knob and gaiter is most likely worth it.

When I did it I only replaced the gaiter, the clips at the bottom of mine was broken, and taking the old gaiter off broke it more, easy enough to repair with tape or whatever, but do take car if you are going to do it.

In terms of removing the clip that hold the knob on, my B5 is definitely different to the B5.5, but I found trying to get the clip off very difficult, mine was recessed into the plastic tube a good few inches. Whilst I was trying to move the gaiter around I pulled quite hard and off popped the knob from the assembly. Please note - this worked for me, however I'm certainly not advising that you pull at your gear knob until it separates!

Looking at the above link, it seems pretty straightforward on the B5.5, for B5 drivers buy all of it not just the gaiter.