Knob Job

During my last few drives in the 280z, I noticed a rattling noise coming from the shifter.  After some highly complicated diagnosis of grabbing and releasing the shift knob, I came to the conclusion that the noise had to be coming from the knob itself.  My theory was confirmed when the knob actually came apart after a slight upward pressure.

So much for the Amco shift knob!  I began searching for a replacement knob, preferably a knob that resembled the stock shift knob.  I had difficulty locating a picture or description of a stock knob, but eventually found a brochure that featured a picture of the knob.

Apparently the shift knobs were commonly replaced with wooden knobs by dealers as an upgrade, so you would think a stock knob would be easily located... not so.  I had found cheap (really cheap) knock-offs, but nothing close to the original.  

I was about to give up and purchase a replica wooden knob when I came across an eBay seller offering a stock knob from a 1976 280z being parted out!  It was even being offered at a very reasonable price far below the wooden knob I was considering.

Upon receiving the knob, I found that the description left out a few details, such as the medallion had separated from the knob and the threaded insert was missing.  This shouldn't pose too much of a challenge though.

The medallion was easy to replace.  After cleaning out the residual adhesive left from the original installation, I used some Liquid Nails water based adhesive to secure the medallion back into place.

For the threaded insert, I used a 8mm furniture threaded insert nut (actually two stacked on top of each other) locked into place with JB Weld.

I now have an original shift knob!