Re: The same to you, my dear, with knobs on?

[Scott Fisher <sfisher71@domain.elided>]

--- DieingSwan@domain.elided wrote:

> One thing I really want to avoid is the
> aftermarket set-screw type option. I have found 
> this type liable to loosen and pop off when you 
> least want it to... 

Loosen, yes -- twice in the three years I've owned my
Spider, the shift knob has loosened, and both times
when I was several hours away from tools: once on a
tour, once on a trip.  

Pop off -- hardly, not on my Spider anyway.  The shift
knob I'm using covers the top three inches or so of
the shift lever, and even when one of the three set
screws has loosened, there wasn't enough slop or flex
to be able to remove it.  In fact, there was so little
flex, I thought at first that the transmission was
about to fly into shrapnel.  

Either way, I am DEFINITELY putting the
appropriate-sized Allen key (2mm?  I can't
remember...) into the tool kit the next time I take
the Spider on a long road trip.  It was harrowing.

> What about the idea of getting a genuine wood one 
> from an earlier Spider? Would this type thread onto 
> the shifter of an '81? 

I don't know about the '81 and its mechanism.  On my
'74, the shift lever itself is NOT threaded -- there's
a small, semicircular depression machined into the end
of the shift lever, about 5mm in from the tip and
about 5mm wide.  No idea what it was for.

Does your '81 have a threaded end?  If so, be careful
about replacements -- I know that my Spider's shift
lever is thicker than the "standard" or "universal"
shift knobs, and I've actually cracked one aftermarket
knob trying to fit it to the lever.  

> Or how about the billet alloy 
> type that IAP offers with the threaded insert? I do
> like the look of those... 

My vote goes for the tiger maple knob in the IAP
catalog -- simply stunning.  

> I only hesitate, I guess, because they are not
> original Alfa.

Bet your tires aren't, either. :-)  

I've always been a proponent of upgrading, or at least
personalizing, the surfaces of the car that my hands
touch while driving, if only because that's your
primary source of direct physical contact with the car
(Tessie's well-documented barefoot shenanigans
excepted, of course).  Why not make those points of
contact as aesthetically pleasing as possible?

I will add that my Spider is pretty much the only car
I've ever owned in which I did NOT lust after a Nardi
mahogany steering wheel -- the Spider's original
Personal-brand mahogay wheel being lovely, and in my
car's case, in excellent condition.  The aftermarket
shift knob matches its hue well enough that they
appear to be a pair.

--Scott Fisher
  Tualatin, Oregon
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