Well that was a waste of £30....

[AckersMR2]

....and an afternoon I won't get back!

I bought these billet heater knobs 2nd hand, they were sprayed in sable which I didn't want but thought I'd strip the paint and wet and dry to a nice brushed finish. Got round to doing it today and spent the afternoon stripping and polishing, went to put them on the car and see if you can spot the difference....


The middle one has a larger hole than the other two and so consequently it won't grip the spindle and just spins around uselessly!

So back to stock it is then  s:( s:(  to top it all I bought a circulation knob to match so that was a waste of time and money too!

[aglassinthesink]

as an attempy to rescue it, why not try sticking something like blue tack in the middle one? might grip it enough to allow it to work

[Barney Bear]

Think a small piece of metal tube with some heavy duty glue would work

[widermuller]

I think your metal cages are missing! Looking at your posted pic. Thats why they won't grip the plastic sharfts.

[AckersMR2]

I think your metal cages are missing! Looking at your posted pic. Thats why they won't grip the plastic sharfts.

I took this pic after I took the cages back out to put the original ones back on. When I put the cages in, the middle one fell in! I did bend it to widen the cage so it gripped the outside of the bigger hole but it doesn't help as although the wider stretched cage now grips the billet knob its then too wide/splayed to grip the shaft in the dashboard.
Like others say I will have to find some sort of sleeve to narrow the hole  s:( s:(

[widermuller]

Those cages vary in size even if you don't play about with them, after all as a sheetmetal part they won't have the greatest tolerance on them. from what I've found. However, keep taking the cages in and out, will have the effect of 'broaching' the hole, meaning, that it will remove metal, were proberly only talking microns here,( 25 microns equals 1 thousandths of an inch to give you an idea, 1 thou feeler gauge ) But even so the hole is being enlarged. Ideally you want  slight interferance fit between knob and cage, the cut up the side of the cage assists this, but the hole has to be also sized correctly.

The simple solution is to araldite the cages in, resize the cages so they will grip the sharfts, then apply with a  scock cock scock tail stick, the araldite around the top of the hole, push cage home, the cage when being pushed down, will drag the araldite down the bore. Clean up any surplus glue down the bore with a cotton bud moisted with IPA (isopropoalcohol) If done correctly I think you will have a job getting them out again!