In attempts to remove my shift ****, I nearly ripped my shift boot off. What is the easiest way to remedy the situation?

 

The easiest way would be to try to tuck it back in so it looks OK and then never touch it. To fix it, you have to take apart the center console. There's instructions here:
http://www.redlinegoods.com/MINI07install.php

 

I was worried that was going to be the answer. Thanks!

 

Why bother I will sell you one for $15 plus shipping.

 

Sell me what?

 

A shift boot with chrome line instead of fixing yours or gettinf a redline unless that is what you want.

 

Dude, it came off the hook. Take off the whole boot including the silver ring and just pop it back into its hole. Done.

 

That's the part that requires taking apart the console. You can only access the clips that release the silver ring from underneath.

Either that, or I'm posting in invisible font again.

 

I just pulled mine up and out when I installed my Whalen ****. That trim ring pops right out. Meaning not to pull straight up on the boot, but to carefully push down through the fabric of the boot and gently work the ring out from underneath. Is that what you mean Kirby? It's late and I don't think I'm making sense.

 

Not what I was thinking but if you can get to the clips by pushing through the boot that's a heck of a lot easier that how I've done it. Good to know!

 

I've popped it out several times now w/o removing the entire console to change my shift **** twice.

 

After removing the boot:


The trim ring, looking into the shift boot:


The boot with old shift **** still attached:

I after removing the shift ****, I put the boot over the shaft, lined up the plastic tabs, and snapped it back into place:


Then I seated the Whalen Shift **** and it clicked into place:


I don't know if this answered the question.
I think I need to go to bed now.

Edit to add:
Back to the OP.
I think with the boot removed it will be easy to glue that part of the boot that pulled away from the trim ring back into place.
Doug Whalen emailed the instructions to me and it worked great.
I'll see if I can find that email because Doug explained it so well.

Edit again: This is what Doug Whalen said to do:
The first thing to do is to remove the boot trim ring from the console. For that, I usually use a butter knife, slipped down between the trim ring and the console; move it around a bit, and the ring will pop up from the console.

I guess I used a butter knife, but I don't remember that part.
Yep, just found my email to Doug, telling him I used a butter knife.

 

Ok, so with a little persuading, you can remove the silver trim ring from the rest of the console without actually taking the console out?

I have a few trim removal tools at home, I will give this a shot tonight.

 

Yup. Good luck.

 

It never even crossed my mind to take the console out.
The trim ring was really easy to remove.
One thing that may or may not be important.
As chance would have it, my car had been closed up in the FL sun for several hours when I did this installation.
I think that the intense heat in the car may have made those plastic clips more pliable. The stock shift **** came away from the boot very easily as well.
It's just my own unproven theory, but I believe that heat was a factor in how easily those clips gave way. Not one of them broke!

 

Me either til I got a new shift boot and those were the instructions provided for it. The butterknife method sounds so much better. Good luck, OP!

 

Got it off, not sure if I did it, but half of the small clips that held the boot in place were broken. Nothing a bit of superglue cant fix. Also, the small ring that snaps onto the **** itself separated from the boot, so I had to turn it all inside out, line up the **** then slip the ring over after the fact.

I plan on making my own delrin ****, so I will design it so that plastic ring that clips onto the stock **** is not needed.

 

ok so halfway through redline instructions for installing new shift boot and I'm stuck.
will butter knife method work for this?
got lighter detached,
got wire harness i think for sport ect detached,
cant seem to get last wire think its joystick detached.

 

Any luck yet, noreen? That last one is a nightmare. Try using flashlight and a small mirror so you can see under there, and a small screwdriver. IIRC there's a clip on each side of it that needs to be pressed in, but it's near impossible to reach.

 

grabbing mirror now-
jeez why didn't i think of that!

wish there was a head smack smiley

 

ugh no luck

 

Dang! Sounds like it's time to try the butterknife from the topside method.

I feel your pain. I've done the shift boot change twice using the underneath method and both times that last plug was my psychological undoing. After the first time I thought 'Never again!' and it was... until I changed my mind and wanted a different color scheme.

 

I tried following the Craven install guide for the well cover and it said you had to remove the whole center piece. **** that, popped out the shift ****, pulled out the boot and ring, placed the spring and circle piece, then placed the well cover! easy 5 mins...lol

 

I had that same problem when I was installing my JCW **** a few weeks ago. This is what I did:

Since I already pulled the boot loose, I went ahead and just put my fingers down there and pulled up the entire trim ring.

Next, I took the boot off, the shift **** off, and then figured out how the trim ring fits into the console. It only fits in there one way. I took a piece of tape and put it on the trim ring and the console and made a black line, that way, I knew which way to put the ring back in.

I did the same with the retaining ring on the bottom of the silver ring. but there, I just marked the underside.

I superglued the boot to the silver trim ring, put on the retaining ring, and using my handy marks, snapped it right back in.

Fixing the boot took me an extra 10 minutes on my install job. I did manage to break every single tab on the bottom ring, but I don't think I needed it anymore with the superglue. I just put it in there anyway.

Hope that helps.