I figured today would be the day that I got round to fitting them as I had some time on my hands and I need to start whittling down the boxes of car parts I now seem to be collecting.
So after reading a few posts on how to remove it and checking on TIS (which suggests you need a force of around 400 NM to remove it) - I figured I'd set about it.
To put things in perspective - I wouldn't exactly describe myself as being weedy and certainly didn't think pulling a gear knob off would be beyond my strength or capabilities.
But I was yanking on this thing for 10 minutes solid and it would budge.. I tried all sorts of ways of positioning myself in the car (mindful of some of the posts regarding smashed mouths/teeth etc) and still couldn't wrestle the thing free... eventually I sat back to evaluate my strategy.. and it was then that I noticed that the stock BMW chromeline gearknob appeared to be separating slightly between the leather and the chrome backing. I had been pulling on it that hard that the knob was separating itself from itself instead of coming free from the shaft. It was then that it dawned on me that it was GLUED to the shaft - one of the previous owners in their infinite wisdom had used some sort of mega adhesive to bond it to the shaft!
Now that I was clear on how it was held on - and I was resigned to the gearknob being a total loss - I separated the front from the back and was then left with this:
I very carefully started chipping away at the adhesive and peeling it off methodically.. sometime later it looked like this:
And eventually (much, much later) I managed to clean it up enough to be happy with it:
Now came the easy part - fitting the Storm Motorwerks gearknob, this simply slipped over the shaft and pushed down and was held in place with 2 grub screws at the front:
I then popped in the lighter blank:
And decided to call it a day - I still have the handbrake cover to fit, but that can wait until tomorrow as it's starting to get dark here.
Here's what was left of my BMW gearknob:
There goes any notion of recouping any of the cost back for the Storm Motorwerks gearknob!! LOL!!
- should be even better when I get the Earls braided clutch hose fitted to get rid of the CDV! 
