I pulled the manual **** off from the shaft but the **** is still attached to the leather boot -kind of like a loose condom on a male organ.
How do you get the **** seperated? And also, how do you get the boot off from the base ?
I am thinking about chopping the shaft down 2-3 inches.

 

Pull. It is just held on with a rounded flange on the bottom of the plastic sleeve. The vertical slits in the sleeve will allow it to bend and pop out.

Haven't done that yet. I think someone describes it in the Mods forum.

That will limit your options for ***** in the future. The shaft has a notch in the top and a groove in the shaft that is a specific distance from the top. Chop the shaft and you lose the notch and alter the distance to the groove. Only friction mounting ***** would work after that. You wouldn't be able to use one of Whalen's *****, nor one of mine.

The right way to shorten it is to replace it with one of the short shift levers. Some of them allow you to adjust the height. If you chop the original off, you may be replacing it anyway.

 

The silver colored ring is just clipped on to the base. You slip a blade in there and ease it out. The boot has slits in it that fit over tabs on that silver ring. Don't cut too much off the bottom of the boot, because the tapered diameter of the boot won't fit if you take too much off. Better to just leave it bunched up around the shaft, or just trim about 1/2" off.

Robin - Can't your shift ***** be pressure fit onto the shifter shaft without an adapter?

 

They use the Whalen adaptor he makes for his pool ball *****. That requires the notch and groove.

I could probably do something custom. However, you don't want to put pressure on the wood. As temps and humidity change, the wood might crack if it has no room to contract. I've taken steps to prevent that with the Whalen adaptors.

So, it would be best to make some sort of brass or aluminum insert that fit the shaft. Set screws could be used to secure it.

 

Once it is off the shaft use a paint scraper or a flat head screw driver between the boot and ****. When I took mine off I used the "just pull" method and riped the boot. Had to glue it back together. Not badly but still more work.

+1 Whalen Shifter **** adaptor

 

Hadn't heard of the boot tearing before. My **** came free of the boot at the same time as the shaft. My MA was showing me how to do it. He pulled very hard to get the **** off and when it let go, the momentum pulled it out of the boot.

The screwdriver should work. Or, just hold the ring at the top of the boot in one hand (or one person) while pulling the **** with the other. That will take the strain off the boot itself.