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Chevrolet Camaro Shift Knobs and Boots

Maintenance, performance, and efficiency issues aside, a manual transmission or an automatic with a classic center console-mounted shifter with a knob handle just looks cool in your Chevrolet Camaro. In fact, a common modification is to add a custom shift knob and boot that reflect the personality of the driver. The choices are limited only to your imagination, and both components are pretty easy to remove and install.

The reasons are either a matter of utility or of personal preference. If your current shift knob is inadequate, your hand slips off easily. If its the wrong size for your hand, it will be less comfortable and make control more difficult. The other reason for a custom shift knob speaks more to aesthetics than performance. There are two kinds of shifters available:

• Automatic: These are either steering column- or center console-mounted, and the driver usually needs to depress a button on the side to activate it. Once the vehicle moves the transmission into gear, further manipulation is unnecessary unless changing from forward to reverse, drive to park, or vice versa.
• Manual: These shifters are mounted in the center above the transmission bump. The shifter handle may or may not be covered by a black boot, which is a skirt-like piece of leather or cloth that covers the handle and opening around the shifter from the top down. The clutch must be depressed first to operate, and it requires a smooth transition from the clutch to the accelerator to avoid stalling or jerking.

When you change to a custom shift knob, you should make sure that it exactly matches the thread count on the end of the stick, which will be listed either in English or metric units. To learn the thread count of the handle, measure the base diameter first, and then use calipers to determine the diameter to the outer edge of the threads. Next, measure the number of threads per centimeter. Your thread size is the diameter multiplied by the thread count, and your pitch is how many millimeters the knob advances in one full turn.

Adding a custom shifter, whether youre changing the knob, the boot, or both, is a relatively easy process:

1. Put the shifter in neutral and engage the parking brake.
2. If theres a screw holding the knob in place, remove it. Otherwise, just unscrew the old knob and pull it off.
3. If youre also changing the boot, just push at the base of the shifter boot to dislodge the clips holding it in place, pull the boot up over the stick and knob so it is reversed, and cut off the little metal clip holding it in place with some snips.
4. Reverse the process to place a new one, pinching the new metal ring clip just below the knob together with some pliers. Make sure its on straight and the plastic clips at the bottom are in place under the edge of the frame.
5. Screw the custom shift knob into place and tighten it, inserting a fastener if necessary.