Nissan Skyline R32 Gear Knob

Hey team,

A friend of mine recently purchased a Nissan Skyline R32 GTS-T and was, let's say, “dissatisfied” with the interesting aftermarket gear knob that came with the car. Those of you who own / have owned these types of cars may get the joke I'm insinuating ;-).

We decided to put something together based on some ideas gathered from genuine offerings by Nismo, the tuning arm of Nissan. I personally own the standard model gear knob and both the Nismo titanium and polyurethane sleeved models, they're both exceptionally well machined and highly recommend.

The gear knob consists of a few pieces;

• 1 x Gear knob
• 1 x Gear knob ‘locker’
• 1 x Square nut (M10 1.25p - to suit Nissan Skyline)
• 1 x Square nut (M6 1.0p - to suit cap head bolt)
• 1 x M6 1.0p 20mm bolt (Stainless 316)

The square nuts (black TPU) are inserted into the ‘locker’ (orange PETG), which then screws onto the gear shift lever and accepts an M6 cap head screw from the top to hold the gear knob in place. I've designed the ‘locker’ to have a square shape, rather than a cylinder, so that the gear knob is fixed in position, and doesn't rely solely on the M6 bolt to hold the knob in place. The fitment between the locker and knob has a little bit of tolerance built in so that everything sits snug together and is very unlikely to come apart.

The reason why I wanted to go with this design is two-fold;

1. Allows you to print square nuts separately in whatever size and material required, in my case I printed both in black TPU (M10 1.25p / M6 1.0p) to suit the Nissan. The TPU turns out to work really well for this application as it has a little bit of flex under tension without snapping like PLA or PETG. You can also use proper steel square nuts if that's your preference. Using steel square nuts will also give a little bit more ‘weight’ to the gear knob, which some people prefer :-)
2. Allows you to print the gear knob in whatever material takes your fancy. In my case I went for black TPU with 60% infill using the gyroid pattern, so it has a very slight ‘squish’ to it. This mimics the feeling of a standard gear shift knob which I prefer over a solid ‘metal’ feeling. As a bonus, the TPU provides a bit more grip as opposed to harder materials like PETG or PLA.

The M6 bolt is 20 mm in length and made from stainless 316 to avoid any issues with corrosion, however you could use any cap head bolt you prefer.

I hope this is useful for somebody out there, and if anyone would like an alternative thread pitch created for the square nuts, feel free to comment below and I can upload something for you :-)

Regards