What's your gear knob made of?

[paulsco]

I was tempted to leave out 'gear' but thought better of it:-)

Anyway...my gear knob has stripped its threads and I am considering reconstructing them, maybe putting an insert in, but I notice it is made of what appears to be bakelite.

The one on my 340 is aluminium with a plastic covering and according to SNG has the same part number (C23007).

The aluminium one seems to have a good throw as the weight seems to help with the shifting.

I am now wondering if my E-Type one is original.

What's yours made of?

Paul

[cactusman]

Mine is black...don't think it is bakelite but it may be. Already has a brass insert....no idea if original though....

[Durango2k]

Wood of course :-)

Carsten

[1954Etype]

The original 4.2s were black and made out of the heaviest metal known to man. Carston, get rid of the wooden one, the weight helps with the throw.

[ralphr1780]

I am pleased with this:

[malcolm]

My original black one was badly discoloured. Had a heavy wooden one made for me by a British guy living in the states. He inserted a period Growler for me. Not too light; works well

[mark10337]

I like my wood one with growler centre. Not as cold as a metal one on a cold winter morning.

[Bill B]

The original 4.2s were black and made out of the heaviest metal known to man. Carston, get rid of the wooden one, the weight helps with the throw.

I agree. I replaced the PO's wooden one with an original style heavy one and it did improve the shifting.

[TrevS]

The original 4.2s were black and made out of the heaviest metal known to man.

Here is a picture of my original gear knob on my 4.2 that has lost all it's covering. I can confirm it is a very solid, weighty lump of metal. The after market black ball replacement I've just bought looks loads better but weighs about 2/3rd of the original

[paulsco]

Thank you all for your input.

It looks like the originals were metal with a plastic covering, but the replacements now are made out of some sort of plastic.

I don’t know where that leaves mine though; it is definitely 'many years' old.

Paul

[Moeregaard]

My very early 4.2 had one made of the aforementioned heavy metal. At some time during the restoration process, I managed to lose this thing. Luckily, I found a similarly sized ball that had managed to fall off of a JCB parked in a nearby lot. The thread was 1/2-13, but a few minutes on the lathe produced a suitable adaptor. With apologies to the owner of the JCB...

[cactusman]

The densest metal known is Osmium. That would make the heaviest gear knob....Assuming your gear knob was 5 cm in diameter it would have a volume of 65.45 cm3. An osmium knob that big would weigh 1.478 kg That much pure osmium would cost you about $20,000 so I rather doubt Jaguar used osmium sadly! Oh and it has toxicity issues too...

[Geoff Green]

Oh, foolish me... Here I was thinking it was made of unobtainium.

[cactusman]

Unobtainium is more expensive than osmium.....especially when used in an e type

[Robert Hiland]

The original finish flaked off so I removed it and refinished it.

It appears that is made of lead.

Bob
67 Series I