Moss Motors, Ltd

GREETINGS ALL I AM CONSIDERING PUTTING A CUE BALL SHIFT KNOB ON MY 78 MIDGET ANY OTHER FOLKS OUT THERE THAT HAVE DONE THIS?  I WAS LOKKING AT A 8 BALL SHIFTER KNOB BUT I KIND OF LIKE THE WHITE CUE BALL BETTER  HAVE A GREAT DAY ALL.......CHEERS

I don't know of anyone who's done this on an MG, but it's possible I guess. One thing I think you will find is that a real cue ball is very heavy and will really increase the load on your shifter mechanism. There are other materials around that would give you the look you want without a lot of the weight. I've seen round chrome shift knobs available on e-bay that could be powder coated white for the same look and truely be intended for shifter use. One other thing, unless you have rather large hands I think you may find a real cue ball a bit large for a comfortable shift knob in the long run, seems that something a little smaller is usually the most comfortable for most people, hence the average size of most aftermarket and original equipment knobs. (A word of caution, on most forums using all capitol letters is considered bad manners, sort of "shouting". For better responses you probably should consider using both caps and lower case.)

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'73 Midget (V6)
'59 MGA (I6) under construction

"There is a fine line between a hobby and mental illness"

If you look around on some of the back posts, I seem to remember one poster showing pictures of his finished restoration and he was particularly proud of his cue ball shift knob.  I'll see if I have any record of that post.

You might google "cue ball" with "shift knob" or "shifter knob" because I'd be surprised if somebody doesn't make one, or make a knob that looks like an actual cue ball.

LATER THAT SAME DAY - I just found the poster that has the cue ball shifter.  His handle is Redline7000.  You can find his pics in the gallery.  Look at PICT2395.JPG

Gotta love that Oregon_Bob guy --  is there no end to your wealth of research abilities?  LOL!!   

Good show on getting the info mate!

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Lou
'76 MGB MKIII

I've done this before with an 8 ball. Just drill and tap for the threads, no problem.

Bill Young is right though when he says that it might be uncomfortable. It takes much "getting used to". I actually preferred the original for control considerations.

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On their death bed, nobody ever said, "Gee I wish I'd spent more time at work!"

you engineers... jeez.... there's just nothing you won't try is there?!  LOL!!  I'm not surprised you pulled off something like that Davey!  haha!

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Lou
'76 MGB MKIII

It's wonderful that we can mess around and express ourselves with this stuff, isn't it? I gotta tell ya though, for the actual driving, I prefer the small stock black plastic unit by far, and I've never found anything that falls "so readily to hand" as it does. Being a dense plastic it also is insulated from the heat of the gearbox. I once tried a small one machined expensively from aluminum rod. It was great until the transmission started to heat up. Then, no thanks. Gimme the good ole tiny black one for comfort and function.

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Motorbill
From Lola to Land Rover, If it's British and has wheels, it's likely I've bloodied me knuckles thereupon

Check these out http://creative-car-concepts.com/

 I bought one for my Karmann Ghia and was impressed with the quality. I'd like to get one for my Midget.

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"SAVE 'EM FROM THE CRUSHER!"

When I got my Bugeye it had one in it so when I cleaned up the interior I replaced the original cue ball that started to flake apart with a new one, all I did was drilled and tapped a small diameter aluminum rod to fit the gear shift lever and expoxied the rod into the cue ball than filed and sanded it flush and threaded it on the lever and it seems to work great. I was going to helicoil it in but I had some aluminum rod so I tried that. There is a pic of the interior, pic 8,  in the Photo section and I know it is small but you can see how it looks. I will also put some other ones in when I get a moment.

 Good luck,

Craig