My shift lever has the usual worn out section on the top and I have been in contact with a local furniture upholsters ( they make the stuff for that company that has a never ending sale!) and there is a possibility that they may be able to recover the lever but as my car would be out of commission if I removed mine I wondered if anyone has a redundant shifter to donate to medical science as a prototype project?

Offer: none (sorry).

Question: how do you remove the knob from the stick?

Simply unscrew it.

Why would the car be out of commission? Or do you have to remove the whole gear lever to get at the knob?

Looks fairly easy here is a link to the tutorial from Lexls


http://www.lexls.com/tutorials/body/shifter.html

I am assuming that you would not be able to shift the transmission without the mechanical linkage from the top side button being pressed in and this is integral to the shift knob.
The overdrive switch is only electrical so would be easy to bypass with no shift lever present.

Is it worth trying to take it off to see if you can somehow get away without the gear knob for a few days, possibly with a make shift device of some sort which moves what the mechanical linkage would normally move? just try to be really imaginative

Getting it re-trimmed sounds like a really good idea, you get to keep the original part but have it looking and feeling like new.

You can drive it with no problems,just push the spring loaded arm over to the left and pull back.

The last time I did that I left the runway on landing and ran over a light aircraft , seriously thankyou very much Kenmac.
I will remove and update soon