I love the internet!! Top marks for Olly for this tip. I bought a silver gearknob with blue LED's from eBay to put in my Vectra but couldn't figure out how to remove the standard Vectra gearknob, found Ollies solution via a quick google and had it off in 5 minutes flat (took me 4 minutes to find my grips).
The new gearknob had no lift-reverse and intitially I also removed this (will just slide off once gearknob is removed) but found that reverse and first gear were too close for my comfort. I replaced the lift-reverse as easily as I had removed it and finally fitted my shiny new gearknob. Problem solved!
A side note is that (due to the original gearknob & lift-reverse mechanisms design) you can see the spring of the lift-reverse mechanism underneath the new gearknob, this would be endearing if the top of the plastic lift-reverse slider were flat instead of cupped.. ahh but that's a mod for the future.
(Quick Tip: You can bring up the leather on your gearstick and handbrake really quickly using the Kiwi brand silicone shoe buffer things that look like sponges. Brings them up like brand new every time.. no messin!)
Paul J Stone (aka Infinity from www.streamrider.net), July 2006
