My 2005 XKR shifter was cracked, so I ordered a used one from a 2005 XK8. My XKR had the XK"R" logo on a leather shift knob, and the used XK8 one was all wood grained. Although the wood grain one looks pretty good, I like the leather one better. I assumed I could just screw one off and screw the other one on, but turns out that while on the XK8 shifter the knob just screws on the shaft, the XKR shifter has splines instead of screws threads. The hole in the knob for the splines a larger than the knob hole for the screw threads so the leather knob will fit loosely over the shaft screw threads. I thought about wrapping the splines with a lot of electrical tape or something, but not confident that wouldn't come loose over time because the difference in hole size is not trivial. Has anyone found a good way to attach a spline shift knob to a screw shaft? I don't want to try to take the assembly apart to see if the shafts could be switched. Thanks for any help.

 

There’s no good way to jury-rig the shifter knobs to achieve the switch you are contemplating. You are going to have to source the correct shifter / knob pair for your car

Z