Anyone know any tips or tricks to remove a stuck Voodoo shift knob. I just purchased my car, and the previous owner had it installed with loctite. I tried to twist it off with no luck. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks

Ryan

 

if the previous owner used loctite red, you may be pretty much screwed unless you wanna damage the knob to get it off. if he used loctite blue, you just gotta put more elbow grease into it and twist that baby off. good luck.

 

If the previous owner used the recommended adhesive to secure the knob onto the shifter shaft, you should be able to just twist off with a little muscle and leverage. The instructions with the Voodoo shift knob recommends BLUE loctite, which is a medium strength bonding agent and it requires 115/53 inch pounds of torque to break the bond.

Another course to take is for you to find out what type of Loctite (now Permatex) the previous owner used. If Red or High Strength a little (sometimes a lot of) heat to the joint in order to melt the loctite along with 230 to 310 inch pounds torque to break the bond.

If any of the higher grades of Loctite was used they also require heating the joint and some loctite products are permanent.

 

Get one of those rubber strap wrenches and that should do the trick without damaging your knob. Make sure you clean the knob of oil from your hands with rubbing alcohol first so you get a good grip. They sell those wrenches at the dollar store here or Sears has them.

 

You could also try a pipe wrench with some rubber sheeting to cover the teeth. This will give you alot of leverage without damaging the knob.

Question: Why remove the knob at all? I love my voodoo.

 

Also are there any allen set screws at the base of the knob? If so they need to come out first. ( STRAP WRENCH , nono for the pipe wrench.... cough... cough )

 

i remember on my last S that i could not remove the shifter - (not too sure if it was a voodo or not) BUT there was a set screw at the bottom that needed to be loosened..

 

Thanks for all the help guys. I am trying to remove the knob so I can install Rick's center console cover. Also I want to try out the stock knob height before deciding which one I like better. I have already tried using that rubber strap thingy and I broke it with all the force I used. I am also a little weary of breaking the whole shifter mechanism by twisting too hard. I am pretty sure there are no set screws on my shift knob, so I guess I better learn to love this knob.

 

There is NO set screw on a Voodoo knob. It just twists off. If it's got permanent Locktite on it, you might get it to loosen up a tiny bit if you heat up the knob. I would suggest you take a hair dryer on its hottest setting and put it on the knob for 10 to 15 minutes. A heat gun might be too dangerous unless you can direct the heat only to the knob. You don't want to melt anything else around there.
Then try the strap wrench or even wrap a bunch of surgical gloves around it and have a friend with gorrilla hands to do the twisting for you. Don't suddenly snap on it as I'm not sure how strong the stick is held in the base. You don't want to break something in the shift linkage.
You can also remove the stick from its base and take the whole assembly, with the console cover and boot cover with it to a vise. Wrap the stick with rubber gloves, too so you don't dent it. Just remember how you disassembled the thing so you can put it all back together again.

 

I know this is an old ass thread, but I can't get my voodoo knob off either. I am putting my car back to stock. I installed it with blue loctite and I can't get it to move. The wholeshifter storts to twist a little if I twist too hard. I also don't want to break anything in the shifter mechanism.

Has anyone come up with a better way to remove it in the last 5 years since this thread was started!!