Welcome to Just Commodores, a site specifically designed for all people who share the same passion as yourself.

New Posts Contact us

Just Commodores Forum Community

It takes just a moment to join our fantastic community

Register

[VZ] How To: Change the Gear Boot on a 6 Speed VZ (Monaro/Commodore)

Darkhound

New Member
Joined
Sep 13, 2009
Messages
7
Reaction score
4
Points
3
Members Ride
2005 VZ CV8 Monaro
Hey Guys,

Have used this site for a while for help/advice so hopefully someone finds this useful as I imagine I'm not the only one having to replace the gear boot :)

I bought the gear boot for my car online (eBay) from this link here from seller TopGaiters for $15 with $5 P&H out of the UK.

Once you've got the gear boot, its time to fit it but you will need some other things too:

- 1x Flat head screwdriver (Anything between 5mm-10mm, its to pry apart plastics later and seat the gearboot in the gearboot ring. Probably a 8-10mm tip would be ideal and its what I used.)
- 1x Phillips head screwdriver (standard size)
- 1x Ratchet with 10mm bit

The Method:


Get started by removing the rubber tray under the radio so you can access the screw in the location marked in the image below:
attachment.php

attachment.php

attachment.php


Once the screws out, lift up the centre console lid and use a flat head screwdriver (or similar) to lift the lid of the centre and remove it entirely (don't forget to disconnect the switches)
attachment.php

attachment.php


At this point we hit a fork in the road.

Some people will say to remove the gear knob entirely. The instructions for this step vary, and TBH I found it to be a lot of effort and I actually DAMAGED my gear knob trying following the instructions carefully. Not happy. (The leather wrapped around the gear boot has twisted on the knob and come loose around the metal decoration.)

I had to improvise here but I'm very happy with the results so the instructions below are obviously on how I did it.


Now the centre lid is out, you should see a square ring into which the gear boot sits. That unclips and you can lift it to access the two bolts on the gearstick.
They're 10mm and its time to remove them. Careful though! If you drop them, they may drop below the car/onto the gearbox.
attachment.php

attachment.php


Once the assembly is apart, I cut away the old gear boot and seperated it from the gear boot ring.

The new gear boot came with a pretty narrow opening at the top and I wasn't very keen on cutting the hole any larger, so I cut four small (6mm to 8mm-ish) cuts at the top to allow the gear boot to stretch over the lower assembly of the stick. (When you get to this point, you'll understand) and then with a little bit of effort pushed the gearstick through the gearboot until I was happy with its location.

Then its simply a matter of using a cable-tie to secure the gear boot at the top of the gear stick and seating the gear boot into the gear boot ring before reversing the rest of the steps until its all assembled again! (I also had the problem of the mobile-phone holder bit flipping open all the time due to a broken clip so I took the opportunity whilst it was all apart to remove the springs that open it)

And the finished result:
attachment.php
 

Attachments

  • stepone.jpg
    stepone.jpg
    177 KB · Views: 8,657
  • stepeight.jpg
    stepeight.jpg
    80.8 KB · Views: 6,474
  • stepfive.jpg
    stepfive.jpg
    59.1 KB · Views: 7,433
  • stepfour.jpg
    stepfour.jpg
    64.1 KB · Views: 5,521
  • stepnine.jpg
    stepnine.jpg
    80.4 KB · Views: 5,732
  • stepseven.jpg
    stepseven.jpg
    58.5 KB · Views: 1,212
  • stepsix.jpg
    stepsix.jpg
    81.6 KB · Views: 7,531
  • stepthree.jpg
    stepthree.jpg
    153 KB · Views: 5,582
  • steptwo.jpg
    steptwo.jpg
    149.4 KB · Views: 5,724
Last edited:

Sandman

Challenge Accepted
Joined
Apr 8, 2013
Messages
1,668
Reaction score
1,327
Points
113
Age
28
Location
Melbourne
Members Ride
Too many
Great writeup mate, very good detail.
 
Top