So, I was able to remove the silver ring at the base of the leather boot. Only after breaking six clips did I read that you had to go through the leather boot to get to the bottom of the clips. :p

Anyway, I can see the four white plastic retaining clips for the **** but even when using a flathead screwdriver, I can't press them in towards the shift lever pole at all. There's absolutely no slack.

What's the next step to get this darn **** off?

I read this thread with a lack of pictures, I couldn't make heads or tails of the tips.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...hift-****.html

 

If this is a standard OEM round shift ****, push that boot back down and out of the way.
Grab the shift **** like a baseball and "yank" it straight up very quickly. It has to go straight up. Don't try to twist it, or turn it, just yank it straight up. Be careful of your head, when it pops loose.
It looks as if you are trying to remove the shift boot and **** in a single pull, and that won't work. Remove the **** and work the retain ring down on the boot with a small tweaker if you also want the boot off.

Are you also trying to replace the boot?

 

No. Just trying to replace the **** from the standard black plastic **** to the JCW carbon fiber/leather one.

I was trying to find a workaround of using brute force to pull on the shift ****. I don't think I can muscle it off of there.

 

I've swapped out three of them for the JCW Carbon shift ****. It's a nice mod.
It really does pull straight up. It's just on there really tight right now. Try spinning it a little back and forth and you might get some slack out of that plastic ring.

The four tabs you're looking at are to hold up the shift boot. That ring can be forced back over the four tabs and the shift boot would now be loose. The other end of that plastic clip, has two clips tat hold the shift **** on. It's a single piece.
Don't use gorilla force, it should come off with a nice shape yank.
I have the ****, and clip off my JCW round ****. If you need a pic let me know.

 

Hot dang! I got it! Thanks for the help.

I had it in neutral, put both seats all the way back, released the e-brake, sat on the e-brake, put my elbows on my thighs for leverage, and just pulled straight up like you said. It makes sense that you'd need to remove the **** first from the shift lever first. Now there's plenty of room to push the four clips in to release the **** itself from the leather boot.

 

Looks like you got your shift boot with it. With the boot loosened from the clips on the ring, it must have just all come off together. Mine have never done that, but I don't really think it matters, just put it back on together.

 

On my car, the top of the leather boot is attached to a black, plastic ring where the four white plastic clips from the shift **** attach to. The leather boot is not simply just zip-tied onto the shift lever like I've seen in some YouTube videos with earlier models. So, yes, it came off the shift lever along with the ****.

 

Similarly, I struggled with mine a few days ago on the (sig) MINI I acquired recently. The silver ring came off easily w/o removing center console and likewise with broken tabs. My replacement choice was a Cravenspeed **** in combo with their shift well cover. Since I wasn't replacing the shifter with a short-shift version, the OEM shifter shaft looked rather industrial with its rough zinc plated finish. If it had been chromed, I would have simply used Cravenspeed's **** and well cover but decided instead to re-utilize the OEM shift boot in combo with the Cravenspeed well cover vs the spring loaded sliding plate included with the well cover. Getting that boot off took awhile, using small screwdrivers to pry then inserted toothpicks with retention tabs now partially retracted until I could yank the sucker off.

Here's a picture of the Cravenspeed items with OEM boot: