how to install paddle shifters

I was thinking the same thing re. usage, & I guess I didnt look to carefully :confused: that they were stationary. That I like . . I dont like the ones that turn with the wheel. I believe that is what I've seen in the past on other vehicles.
 
yeah, I used to think the best was on the wheel, but I drove these & I drove a cayanne with them on the wheel quite a bit too... on the wheel in agressive driving they suck!! the new ferrari's are stationary like these... I think startionary is far superior to moving with the wheel in agresive driving... on the highway at higher speeds the buttons on the wheel are cool too & a bit less effort to use than the paddles, but the paddles are not very high effort to use even so, & way better than having to row the shift rod...
 
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ok, this guide is done... I will still try to clean it up here & there & I'm still looking for input as to if anything is unclear or any other comments, but all the instructions are pretty much here, now hopefully they'll be some installs of these:biggrin:
 
Dude that is incredible, I see from the picture you even have Windows on your LCD.

Was that a hard mod to do also, since you are in BK just curious how much you would charge to install it for someone in the local area??

I live in Jersey but I am in Queens every weekend.

let me know, thanks.
 
hey guys, up until now I've been building these one by one, & each time I've needed to take my fx apart for measuring & test fitting. I usually wouldn't finish them completely in one session so this meant taking my fx apart multiple times for each of these I build. it was a slow process & it was taking a long time, the few guys who have got these from me so far have had a wait of a really long time to have these built & shipped to them.


well I recently had to build 3 sets of these & I decided to build a jig so I can reproduce these without having to take my fx apart each time & without having to eyeball it, measure it, etc. each time. now, everything is precise on a jig that positions everything perfect for me, & this saves me a lot of problems in building these. this also means that I can now process an order for these & have them ready to ship in 2 weeks or less, instead of many weeks as before. they are now very precise in there alignment, & a fairly simple install

I thought more guys would really want these & try & build them, but I guess there not so easy for an average guy to build? I still say go build them yourself, but, if you can't & you want paddle shifters in your fx, I will now build them for you, total cost is $650 + shipping. included is everything you need to install paddle shifters in your fx. there are 5 simple wire connections behind the radio, instructions for install will be included & any mechanic or car audio guy should be able to install these in a few hours. if you have the tools & the patience there not very hard to install & you may be able to install them yourself too. as a reference, I would charge around $150-$200 to install these, I would expect most places to be similar if you had them professionally installed.


next post is going to be simple instructions for a mechanic without all the step by step handholding & detailed explinations of every step. here are a few pictures of building multiples of these :smile:

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paddle shifter install procedure:

1) center the front wheel's exactly straight, steering wheel exactly centered.

2)remove air bag, steering wheel (no puller necissary, just wiggle & pull hard), column lower cover & inner switch housing

* ign key must be outside of the car & do not acidently turn the ign on until the airbag is reinstalled. battery stays connected so the column can be moved in & out to check clearances*

3) transfer inner position switch from the original switch housing to the replacement one. transfer the temporary centering holder from the paddle assembly to the original switch housing once the new one is installed

4) there is one inner plastic tab that needs to be trimmed on the right side of the cluster housing plastic before the new switch assembly can be installed... trim it flush to the inside edge. a quick test fit should show what needs to be trimmed. column tilt switch should be removed from old housing & plugged in to the harness for clearance checks with column in & out



test fit the paddle assembly & extend & retract the column & check for clearances. you can loosen the 3 screws on the inner plate to help align these for best clearances, there is a lot of wiggle room in this plate. pay attention to the paddles being level across the top visually, in relation to the cluster. tighten the 3 inner screws when final position is determined, reassemble & connect the airbag. only now is it ok to let the ign key back in the car.

part 2 wiring:

again, ign off throughout this process. if the ign is turned on while anything is unplugged in the module were working on you will kick up a check engine light.


all connections are at the unified meter a/c amp. this is the only plastic box in the whole radio stack. the whole radio stack is removed by first removing the face, held with clips only, pull it out & unplug from the rear. remove the radio stack 4 bolts & pull foward to access these plugs. you can unscrew & move this box & do your connections without having to unplug everything else. there are 5 wire connections. red is 12v power. 2nd & third are the black & the green. these wires will go to the only wire that you need to cut. the black must go to the harness side & the green must go to the plug/module side of this cut wire. the 2 remaining are upshift & downshift, these are the 2 clear wires... the one with the white stripe is downshift...

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this diagram shows your connections but the colors drawn in are incorrect compared to the harness provided. the green one shown in this picture will be the clear & the blue wire shown will be the clear/white stripe. the 2 black shown will be the black on the new harness to the harness side & the green to the plug module side. the remaining red connection will be in the second (middle) grey plug at term 22, the green/red wire

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secure the relay assembly & plug the phone jack into the paddle assembly from behind & re assemble. test for proper function...
will finish & edit,...
 
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hey i'm very interested in installing paddles in my g37 that doesn't come with them already....

was wondering if you had those parts for sale and if it was more of a bolt on product then the one made for an fx that doesn't even have paddles as an option on the car.


please let me know
thanks
 
on the g37, it's already pre wired & the mounts are there... you just need the paddles & a new column cover & it's plug & play...

I don't stock or sell these parts, but just about any infiniti sales place should be able to hook you up, try infinitipartsusa just tell them you need a pair of paddles & a sport column cover... don't give them your vin if they ask for it cause then they'll screw up & probably get you a blank cover instead of the one you need... just explain to the guy that you need a sport cover with the paddle openings... if youi have trouble lmk & I can look up part 3's but it should be straight foward enough... a lot of guys with g35's & g37's have done this conversion.. check here:

http://g35driver.com/forums/picture-share/191365-new-mod-sport-paddles-x.html
 
paddle shifters version 2.0

hey guys, OK, I have another development in these paddles, get ready for version 2 of these:tongue:

as you guys know, I have found a way to adapt the paddle shifter complete switch assemblies from the late g35/g37's to the fx & the earlier g's(obviously what this thread is). my method was to mount the existing paddle/switch assembly to the column which has worked out well, there are a few guys here running these. my restrictions were the physical size of the paddle switches themselves, I just about squeezed them in the fx column cover & actually had to cut a small relief in the lower cover to accommodate these switches. it did work & they did fit, about the only minor issue was that when the column is fully extended out, if you look under at the sides of the column cover, you can see a part of the switch. it is a minor cosmetic issue & in no way a deal breaker, but less than perfect to. to completely re engineer the whole paddle switch assy would not be worth the effort for a minor flaw such as this.

well, I have had many guys contact me about adding paddles to there cars too, one of the inquiries were to fit them to a 350z. at first I thought that my method used here would be applicable, but upon further inspection I realized that this was not the case. it turns out that in the 350z's, the ignition key cylinder is actually on the column itself, & it sits right behind the wiper stalk, leaving no room to physically fit the paddle switch assembly in there. the part that needs to be exposed for the fx setup is exactly where the ignition cylinder is, so it just doesn't fit at all, I then kinda wondered what I could do to get around this.

I somehow, being the glutton for punishment that I am, took on the project of trying to rebuild the whole switch assembly itself & make it compact enough to fit the 350z application, the only real reason I can give for this is it looked like a real challenge & I thought it would be cool if I could pull it off. I bought a set of paddles & chopped them up, intending on using just the magnesium paddle but mating it to my own pivot/switch. well, the first part, mounting the paddle & having it mount in the right spot & having it pivot was done by me easily enough, but, then came the problem. the problem was shifter "feel", I mean with the paddle pivoting & having a spring return it just didn't feel nice at all. the factory paddles have a nice click feel to them, a kind of snap action rather than a smooth flow through the travel. the bulk of the extension on the OE paddle switches is what makes them feel the way they do, there is a spring in there & a cam that has a detent, bottom line is without this it just feels like crap, imagine a high beam lever type feel, not the best for a paddle shifter really, it worked, but wasn't really good enough to call it successful yet.

well I played with quite a few different designs with different springs, leavers & cams, but the confined space made it very difficult to get something to work the way I wanted it to. I almost gave up a few times, especially after I changed my design a bit & had to invest in yet another pair of paddles to chop up, rendering the first set useless, but, I didn't give up, I really thought that if I gave this enough effort I knew I could get something to work the way I wanted it to. I also promised one Z owner who has been to my shop several times for testing & measuring that no matter what, I would get a set to work in his car at least, so now I couldn't even just quit.

well, to make a long story short, after around 8 months of developing this thing off & on, I finally came up with a solution. a solution that not only makes them feel as good as the factory shifters, but actually feels even better! the factory paddles do work well, obviously there on many thousands of cars, but, they do have a kind of plastic feel to them, the paddles are magnesium, but the mount & the snap action & everything is plastic. my new design uses chrome plated magnets for it's snap action & a steel plate mount design with a steel positive stop. the difference in feel is nice, when I side by side compare my design to the Nissan design the difference is obvious. the OE Nissan feel is like thud-thud for each shift, where mine feel more like click-clack. it has a fine metallic feel, kinda like cocking the trigger of a gun or something, they feel really awesome & feel like more quality than the Nissan plastic feel.

well, the next question may be, so what, we don't have 350z's so why are you telling us this. well, heres where it gets interesting. Nissan, as well as many other manufactures try to stick with a pretty standardized design on there assemblies, so even though each car may have different steering wheels & different column covers & columns, the basic inner dimensions & the basic orientation of everything relative to the steering wheel & control position is the same throughout there whole product line, while the different inner switch housings may be wired differently weather it's for an fx, a g or a z, the actual inner housing itself is the same across the board, they share the same turn signal stalks & wiper switches, etc. what this means is I was able to tweak my design to be able to fit pretty much ANY Nissan/infiniti.


this means that my new design will now fit all of the g's, the Z's, the maxima's & the altimas & possibly others too, & it does indeed fit the fx as well. this means that I can build just one assembly that will be universal to all Nissan/infiniti's. no more having to order an inner switch housing for each different car, no more having to have each car setup be different, now, I can build many of these & then the only thing that would have to be specific to each car is the column cover. this does help reduce costs a bit, now I don't need to buy an inner switch housing that's over $100 by itself, & now I can invest in building a larger quantity because of the universal nature of these, I haven't gotten exact costs yet because I need to source a supplier of the steel plates & brackets that will be pre-cut to my templates, & there is more labor in assembling these, but I'm guessing that overall costs may be reduced by ~$100 or so maybe.

one of the benefits is, on this design, I no longer need to open up those lower reliefs for the switches that were visible before, so now they will be more cosmetically perfect to, my new switches fit completely within the cover. my new design is much more compact than the original Nissan design & just fits better. also, since I was able to design this from scratch I was also able to spec a different switch type for these. the OE Nissan paddles use a single pole single throw switch, it's just off-on. this made it necessary to use relays for the flip flop action required in the circuit, but now, I am using dual throw dual pole switches, which is exactly what Nissan uses at the floor shifter itself, so no relays, direct wire. while the relays made no huge difference really, just a few hundredths of a millisecond delay, these will eliminate that & eliminate the need for relays all together, just that much more perfect:biggrin:

to all that already have the first design paddle retrofit, this in now way makes the first design obsolete or any less great than they already are, it's just that this new design is improved & slightly better & may be a bit cheaper too. actual production on these probably won't be right away, I still need to digitize my templates & work to source a supplier who can laser cut my plates & stuff, might have something ready by around Christmas time, until then if I had to build an fx paddle shifter right now it would still be the first design which is still not bad at all really, once the new design is in production I won't be doing these first designs anymore unless someone specifically requested them.

oh yeah, one more thing, & maybe a big factor for many considering these paddles. my new design does not require removal of the steering wheel any more, the install of the new design will be much easier, just remove the lower cover with a few Phillips screws & install the paddles & the new cover,that's it. steering wheel & airbag & everything don't need to be touched any more, making the install that much easier. of course they still need to be wired in so the radio does still need to be removed for wiring, but the mounting of the paddles themselves will be much easier & the labor will be much less for those that would have to pay someone to install. I'll add some pictures later:biggrin:
 
Again, your the man! can't wait for final pricing and shipments. You are going to be extremely busy. Especially if this gets over to the altima crowd.
 
Ok I want a recall on my shifter!........lol, j/k John.:tongue:
Great work and dedication as usual. Can't wait to see them. Any pictures?
 
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