Well, I have been lurking for a while, time I contribute: Hey Folks, I put in my new wheel and shifter buttons today. I had a great time too! I thought I would post this thread of my personal experience with the install. The write ups to date have been great but, there are a couple of steps that I wished I had more info on so, I added my experience here.... Here it is goes. This will pick up after you have removed the wheel. Use the wiki (http://www.lxforums.com/board/showthread.php?t=64740) to do this. Next, install your paddle shifter buttons. To do this, try this: Take your time, measure 40 BILLION times, THEN start cutting. Here are some tips: 1) Get one of these: http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=93293 They are cheap and work really well. This will allow you to measure every aspect of the switch. Use this to help you trace out the outline on card stock, like a business card. (Hint: Add a centerline, lengthwise, to the business cards before you start. This will help you keep them symmetrical and allow you to ensure the orientation (rotation of the switches) are the same on both sides. More on this later) 2) Do a rough trace of the switch on the card stock and cut it out. Notice that on the top and bottom of the switches, there are little lines. One should be at TDC and another on BDC. There may be others around the switch but, those are not importance. Align those to your centerlines on your cards. 3) Begin to refine your cutout by trimming little bits of the stock and use the caliper to measure your final outline. Once it is perfect, trace it on another card and make a second one. This will allow you to have mock-ups you can measure to ensure symmetry. I used 2 sided tape to keep them in place. Use your new caliper to do your measurements. 4) Measure setback. I used the indention on the wheel, not the leather, where the leather meets the wheel spoke as a measuring constant. This will keep things at the same distance on both sides. 5) This next step will make sure your templates are pointing in the same direction at the same angle. Take some time with this one. Put a straight edge ruler on the center line of the card stock and follow it out to the center of the wheel support brace. There is a small indent in the center of the bar. That is your constant. Take note of the measurement. Now, do the same on the other side. If they match up, you are spot on. If not, you will need to move the templates around until they do. Since these stick up into your line of site, it is very important that the centerlines line up or, your will have one switch paddle pointing at different angles. No lookie gooder. 5) Once your templates are in place where you want them, trace them to the wheel. I would transfer the centerlines form the card stock to the wheel as well and take the center past the outline. You will want to see this line for switch alignment later. I found using a black medium tip ball point pen works the best. It has a reflective like ink that does not rub off easy. This is important when you start to cut stuff out. 6) Remove your templates and measure one final time. 7) Using a wide barrel hobby knife, exacto will do or, (I found these work great using the bigger of the two, not the red handle one though: http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=32099) cut down the center line of the outline you just traced. Then, cut 1/8 of an inch in from the outline all the way around. Make sure you cut deeply. You are doing to this to help with the next step. 8) Using some needle nose pliers or similar, begin to pull out the center of the wheel spoke foam. This is where the cuts you just made play a role. They keep you from grabbing too much. They also give you a clean break line. Keep pulling out chunks until you got most of it out. You are doing to this so you don't work as hard with the dremel. 9) Dremel time! Using a RED conical stone grinder, begin to remove material in a slow manner. Use speed setting 2-3 on your dremel. The reason I suggest you use this tip is it bits less. The other metal style bits have a more aggressive bite which could cause you to color outside the lines. No good. It also leaves a smoother finish on the inside and allows you to make more precision shavings. 10) when you have removed enough material to leave you with a 1/16th of inch inside your lines, start to dry fit your switch. Make note as to how much you need to shave of and then go back to shaving. DO NOT shave too much. You want these to fit snuggly. Try and use the center markers on the switch itself and line them up with the center lines you extended to ensure proper placement. 11) Once you are able to get them to stretch the material enough to keep them snuggly in place without having them bind on material below it and, it sits flush in the hole, you are done with the shaving. Repeat for other side. 12) You will need to pass a screw through the wheel support to attach the switch. The metal on this part of the wheel is about 1/4 inch thick so, you will need to put a bit of pressure. Not too much though. You want to minimize the hole you cut on the rubber foam on the other side. You will want to use a .120 bit that will go through. This will allow you some wiggle room for you to line the screw up with the switch mounting hole. A hint on a getting a proper alignment is to place the switch next to the spoke outside the hole you just dremeled. This will give you the angle and approximate location. Make a mark on the wheel with a pencil. Pencil marks are easy to remove. 13) Using the supplied screw, if provided, or some other screw, dry fit the screw through the hole and ensure it lines up. If not, bore a larger hole from the switch side of the spoke. This should allow you to change the angles. Hint: Push the screw in first, then add the switch and try to engage the screw first. Once engaged into the switch, seat the switch and continue to tighten. If the head of the screw is not large enough to provide enough holding power, us a small washer to increase screw head area. This should do it! Next, get your harness from PLCMAN on LXFORUMS, here: http://www.lxforums.com/board/showthread.php?t=118093 Ok, by now you have removed your wheel, installed your buttons, got your harness from PLCMAN (with or without the line lock board) and are... "Now what...?" Here is where I start. With the wheel removed, I remove the rear shroud and put it aside. I then remove the LIN bus wiring harness from the wheel frame and unwind the black tape, from the white connector only, about 2/3 of the way up. This exposes all the wires. I then open the end of the LIN bus housing. This is done by prying the ends outward and pulling up on the clip's retainer. When you get it done, it looks like this: Next, you will need to remove the center (white or tan with green tracer) pin from the housing. This is done by insterting a jewelers screw driver (flathead) into the front (the side where the pins themselves are) of the housing. In the following picture, you will see the pins, then immediately to the left, a rectangular opening. Insert the driver there and leave it in there as you pull the pin out. Once the pin gets started outbound, you can remove the driver. Now that you have the pin free, you will need to remove some insulation from the wire. You want to start about 1 inch from the pin itself. This is done by using a straight edge blade and cutting around the wire ("scoring step"). Go slow, you will feel the blade grind on the copper when you go through far enough. Do not keep digging into the copper. Make your way around the circumference of the wire. Next move up (away from the pin) about .5 inches or so and repeat the scoring step. Next, you will want to start to "shave" the insulation in between the two scores you just created. As soon as you see copper, stop. Work the rest of the insulation out by hand, or fingernail. When you are done, it should look like this: And this is what you should have so far: Next, align the "T" in the plcman harness where the ground wire flying lead has been soldered to the T intersection the LIN Bus wire has. This will make it easier to burry in the loom. Follow the flying lead wire down the length of the LIN bus section until you get to the section you just removed the insulation from. This will ensure you get the lead the same length as the LIN bus harness. Cut your excess wire so the end of the wire is just past the stripped section of wire. You will need this length to be passed the stripped section so you can strip the flying lead and solder it to the exposed LIN bus wire. DO NOT add shrink wrap to any part of the harness yet. That comes later. WHen you solder the but connection, it should like this (this was my first attempt ever at solder so no flaming on my lack of solder skills): Next, add the 1/4 inch shrink tubing to the wire so it covers the solder connection. This is why you left yourself 1 inch from the pin, it gives you enough wire to leave exposed yet, still allows you to shrink tube it right. It should look like this: Make sure the solder connection is in the center of the tubing and shrink it. It should look like this: Notice you can still see some wire and color at the pin. You want to be able to see what the wire is at the connector so you can decipher what this is later if there is ever a problem. Now, reinsert the pin into the white housing: Now, re-wrap the LIN bus harness all the way back down. Make sure you tap up the black wire you just soldered into the tape too. This will help keep it factory looking and neat. It should look this now: I took it one step further and taped up my button leads on the PLCMAN harness as well as the lead to the clock spring. Next, I put the harness back into the rear wheel shroud. Now, re-attach the housing to the wheel: Here is another angle: Now that the shroud is back on, put the whole assembly way and move on to the clock spring removal. This part made me the most nervous. Your car should look like this at this point: This next part was what made me nervous but, it is not bad at all once you know what to expect. DO NOT FORGET TO BACK OUT ONE SCREW ON THE CLOCK SPRING. It uses a T-10. See pic above!!! To remove the clock spring, there is a set screw which uses a T-30 bit. You will need a long one to get to it. It is at the bottom of the column cover closest to the driver on the right hand side. It faces straigt down. Unscrew this all the way. It will not fall out. Next, firmly grasp the column cover and pull straight out. It will take some wieght, nothing like removing the wheel but, it is more than you would expect. It has to pull itself free from the 14 pin housing on the column AND the center of the clock spring cover (the black cover that you see and has the screw you just backed out which is keeping the clock spring from spinning) is friction pressed onto the steering spindle. This is what makes it tough to slide out. Once you get this off, put it aside. Actually, put it back inside on your counter or table. Put a sign on it that says, "NO TOUCHIE!!!" With the clock spring removed, you should see this: There will be a black shroud holding the connector in it's place. The shrould is being kept in place by a wire tie. Cut it off. Once the wire tie is removed, the shroud should simply slide down by pushing the holding tab outward and pulling down. Once it is removed, you will need to remove the connector from it's mount. This was the trickiest part of this section. Here is what you are up against: If you look at the top of the image you can see in the reflection you will see two ramp looking metal parts, one on either side of the connector. You will need to clear those to remove the connector. I did this using a dental tool. Looking at the connector image in the mirror from the pic above, the part where the wires are coming out of it will be referenced TOP. You will want to push on the tabs from the TOP and push them to the BOTTOM. This will release the connector. Again, I used a dental tool. A small screw driver might work too. Once you get the connector off, you will want to remove it's protective shrould, as shown here: Next, place the ends of the wires shipped from the PLCMAN harness into the open spaces, like this: Which wire you put where will be determined by you and any suggestions plcman gives you. Once this step is done, reassemble everything and do not forget to wire tie the harness to the connector protector where you cut the original one off. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT YOU TIGHTEN THIS TIE WELL. It will make alignment of the connector and clock spring easier. To put the clock spring back on, you will need to sudo align everything. You will insert the column back on the steering shaft. When alligned, you will feel it slip in the center of the clock spring cover will begin to move out and bow. This means you are ready to seat the clock spring cover. From here, make sure the head of the set screw you backed out is not catching by centering the screw in it's whole. This following part is important. To seat the clock spring, put your hand on the center of the clock spring cover and push it and, the column into place. This will take some weight as the clock spring cover is friction loaded. Make sure you support the center of the clock spring cover so you do not let it bow out too much. Once this is done, you will know because the clock spring will not move on it own, screw the clock spring screw (T-10) back down all the way. Now, mount the wheel and bolt and torque to 52 foot pounds as instructed in the service manual. I used more blue lock tight. Now, make all your connections and it should look like this: Put the rest of the stuff back on in reverse order to which you removed them. Once this is done, you can admire your work: And the money shot!!! __________________
Steve, thanks for the awesome writeup! Is this similar to the AMG paddle shifter setup? How do you like it? - Rick
Yes, this is the same with the exception that I went with buttons instead of paddles. The last pic shows how it looks with the new carbon wheel I added. I LOVE IT! You have to do it!
I've got the paddle shifters sitting on my counter right now. I am leaving for three weeks to Thailand on Tuesday....so I'll have to wait until I get back for the install. I'm really looking forward to installing them! No problem brother. Hope to see you around here a lot.
Hey Bud, Thanks! I got it here: http://www.exoticwooddash.com/ Thanks Guys! Thank you very much! I just posted up part 2 here: http://www.srtconnection.com/forums/showthread.php?p=240893#post240893
