Disco 2 Gear Stick

Hi, on the Discovery 2 gear stick... what does the "fat" bit in the middle do ?



On mine this was all bound up with tape & tie wraps.. I took them off and it seems OK, is it just an anti-vibration coupling and do they fail very often ?
Can they be replaced or would I be better just replacing the whole thing ?

Thanks

Yes, it's an anti-vibration coupling / damper - rubber isolator + heavy weight. I've not seen one fail yet.
Were the tie wraps just to hold a knackered gaiter on?
Unless you can feel that its sloppy I doubt it needs replacing

Hi, thanks for the info.. No the gaiter was knackered I found this when I removed it to replace it. The tie wraps were wrapped around the "thin" sections above and below the damper, and then a couple vertically between the top/bottom kind of clamping the top of the stick above the damper to the part below... almost trying to bypass the damper completely. The tape was just wrapped around the tie wraps... it was a bit of a bodge to say the least.

I took everything off, expecting it to fall apart, but it seems solid, I couldn't pull the top part off or twist it etc.. maybe the rubber damper is buggered and the top part of the stick was vibrating ?? anyhow I don't think it's going to fall apart, I just wondered if anyone has problems with these.