DIY: Installing an aftermarket gear lever on my 12-year-old Swift

The gear lever on my Swift got worn out after just 85,000 km, while my 2008 Safari & 2009 Santro still have the original.

BHPian darklord recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

After about 12 years and 85K kilometres of use, the Swift VXI of my sister ended up with a torn gear lever boot and a broken gear knob. I know 12 years is a lot, but our other cars, an '08 Safari 2.2 with twice the mileage and a '09 Santro with about the same mileage still run on the original boot and knob.

The knob:

The boot:

Since I had the car for a few days with me, I decided to do a minor DIY, even though I am not much good with that.

The boot was ordered from Boodmo.com:

I thought of going with an aftermarket fitment for the knob and ordered this from Amazon:

The Amazon link.

Even though it says Sparco, I don't think it is an original product. The packaging is poor, just says Sparco with no other details, not even manufacturer details:

The finish is uneven in places:

It comes with rubber inserts of three sizes and screws and a hex key:

Since the knob and the boot were broken, they had removed themselves, leaving only the insert of the knob behind:

This insert itself was split vertically till the bottom lip, so it came off with light pressure with a flat head screwdriver. I guess the bottom lip could have been removed as well, but it was snugly fit, not broken, and I thought it would work well as a bump from the top of the boot slipping down:

The largest of the rubber insert was the one that fit the lever, albeit very tight:

Inserting the boot was as easy as aligning the clips on the ring to the slots on the console and pushing in:

As I had hoped, the remnant lip holds the top of the boot in place, preventing it from slipping down and exposing the lever.

The knob was inserted, the screws were fixed with the hex key and all done:

The only disadvantage as of now, as I see it, is the lever height has increased overall by a few centimetres, but my sister finds it a convenience.

Overall cost, about a thousand rupees.

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