Mini Cooper Forums - Mini Cooper Enthusiast Forums - Shift stick chopped by previous owner. looking for a fix

Hi All..

I recently bought a 2013 Cooper S hardtop. Previous owner installed a crappy aftermarket shift knob. But the issue is that he/she did a terrible job. Original stick rod was chopped badly, and replacement knob was not properly tightened (or was coming loose often) and it destroyed the shaft. Photos will explain what is going on. So i came about fixing this issue. I bought shaft adapter and a knob and was planning on cutting the shaft a bit lower, just below the grooves previous adapter made.

So i get to the problem of getting too close to the black part (arrow pointing in the photo), that seems to be factory installed - was looking at online knob replacement manuals, and it seems that the part is there. Can anyone tell me, what does it do? Is this connecting two different physical parts into one stick shaft, or something else? Can i safely remove it/cut it out? Based on my adapter dimensions, i would need to cut right through it - adapter inside diameter is the shaft's outside diameter so can't go over it..

any help is much appreciated.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/minicoo...ddb46eba45.jpg