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DIY Hardware Planning to build a cockpit or want to show off your wheel modifications... this is the place.

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Old 03-07-2007, 01:42   #1
Semus
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Get rid of your G25 shift "click" for good!

Now I have to give you a little background before we move forward. A lot of people have been complaining about the "clicking" noise they hear when the G25 shifter goes into any gear. And furthermore, people here have been saying that the little metal ball that is on the end of the spring is causing that noise when it finds it's way into the next hole or "gear".

Now, here's where people are wrong. They say that it's the ball slapping into it's hole that is causing the clicking noise. So I decided to try a little experiment just to see if in fact it was actually that ball causing it. It just seemed to me it was an awfully small bearing to be making all that noise. First, I disassembled the shifter assembly and removed the two metal plates along with the shifting rod, which comes out all together. Once that was out I removed the left plate, which gives access to the shifter ball bearing and spring. I replaced the metal ball bearing with a tiny rubber ball that I had laying around. Assembled it back together somewhat. Enough to where I could still see the ball and spring in action. And to my surprise, the click was still there.

Now how could that rubber ball be making that clicking noise when hitting metal? It can't be. It's rubber. It isn't making noise when slamming into it's hole. After some careful testing and a lot of studying, I found out that it was actually the spring itself causing the "click". Now, before you flame me, I wanted to see if my thoughts were correct. So I removed the spring completely and shoved a ton of foam into the spring hole, so that the ball would rest on top of the foam, but still have enough pressure to cause the METAL ball bearing to slam itself into place when shifting into your next gear. Well.......guess what.......the clicking noise had vanished.


SO, after about 2 solid hours of testing and thinking, I am happy to say that you CAN in fact get rid of your "click" noise when shifting the G25 shifter.



What you will need to do:

1) Get some strong foam material. Make sure the foam springs back into shape when you let go, otherwise it could wear out too fast on you.

2)Disassemble the G25 shifter assembly and remove the two metal plates (6 screws holding it down).

3) Remove left side plate, and be sure to catch the metal ball first

4) Remove the spring out of it's hole. Now before you throw it away, there is a better solution then just throwing foam into the hole by itself.

5) You'll want to put the spring back into the hole, and then put as much foam as you feel is needed on top of the spring. This way the spring will put a constant load on the foam on top so that the foam doesn't wear out over time.

6) place the ball bearing on top of the foam that should be sticking out of the hole a little<-----not essential but I found the shifter to be more "notchy" when it's done this way.

7) re-assemble the two plates and put the assembly back into its position inside the whole shifter assembly and screw everything back together.

8) I added this step for further noise reduction. When the two plates are assembled back together, move the shifter towards you and move it down all the way. Don't worry about the ball bearing, it won't fall out. Place a piece of duct tape (just what I used) over the 3 holes in the left side plate. This way ensures that the metal bearing will not slam onto the metal plate when shifting. With the added pressure from the foam being on top of the spring, it may cause a slight noise when re-assembled. So this step ensures that this will not happen. Also make sure to use a couple layers of duct tape so that the first layer doesn't wear out and then you'll have to go back in there.


Just put the shifter assembly back together and there ya go. I hope this helps all those people that HATE that clicking noise when shifting. I know I sure did!!

Last edited by Semus; 03-07-2007 at 02:05.
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Old 03-07-2007, 03:59   #2
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pics ?
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Old 03-07-2007, 04:16   #3
Semus
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nismoGT-R
pics ?

Sorry none. I can take a few I suppose but then I'd have to disassemble the entire thing again. I am hoping that I can get away with just typing what you need to do. If you still would like pics, give me a couple days. I tried to be as descriptive as possible. I guess in a few days I can post some pics. Just dont have it apart any longer.
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Old 03-07-2007, 04:30   #4
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Just wanted to see how much of a pain in the *** it would be. I will get a G25 in a week from now and I was thinking of getting the act labs shifter (hoping for for it to feel a little better and no noise either.. ) because I had one(G25) back in January and I hated the shifter... fun but damn noise and doesent feel real at all.
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Old 03-07-2007, 04:48   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Semus
Now I have to give you a little background before we move forward. A lot of people have been complaining about the "clicking" noise they hear when the G25 shifter goes into any gear. And furthermore, people here have been saying that the little metal ball that is on the end of the spring is causing that noise when it finds it's way into the next hole or "gear".

Now, here's where people are wrong. They say that it's the ball slapping into it's hole that is causing the clicking noise. So I decided to try a little experiment just to see if in fact it was actually that ball causing it. It just seemed to me it was an awfully small bearing to be making all that noise. First, I disassembled the shifter assembly and removed the two metal plates along with the shifting rod, which comes out all together. Once that was out I removed the left plate, which gives access to the shifter ball bearing and spring. I replaced the metal ball bearing with a tiny rubber ball that I had laying around. Assembled it back together somewhat. Enough to where I could still see the ball and spring in action. And to my surprise, the click was still there.

Now how could that rubber ball be making that clicking noise when hitting metal? It can't be. It's rubber. It isn't making noise when slamming into it's hole. After some careful testing and a lot of studying, I found out that it was actually the spring itself causing the "click". Now, before you flame me, I wanted to see if my thoughts were correct. So I removed the spring completely and shoved a ton of foam into the spring hole, so that the ball would rest on top of the foam, but still have enough pressure to cause the METAL ball bearing to slam itself into place when shifting into your next gear. Well.......guess what.......the clicking noise had vanished.


SO, after about 2 solid hours of testing and thinking, I am happy to say that you CAN in fact get rid of your "click" noise when shifting the G25 shifter.



What you will need to do:

1) Get some strong foam material. Make sure the foam springs back into shape when you let go, otherwise it could wear out too fast on you.

2)Disassemble the G25 shifter assembly and remove the two metal plates (6 screws holding it down).

3) Remove left side plate, and be sure to catch the metal ball first

4) Remove the spring out of it's hole. Now before you throw it away, there is a better solution then just throwing foam into the hole by itself.

5) You'll want to put the spring back into the hole, and then put as much foam as you feel is needed on top of the spring. This way the spring will put a constant load on the foam on top so that the foam doesn't wear out over time.

6) place the ball bearing on top of the foam that should be sticking out of the hole a little<-----not essential but I found the shifter to be more "notchy" when it's done this way.

7) re-assemble the two plates and put the assembly back into its position inside the whole shifter assembly and screw everything back together.

8) I added this step for further noise reduction. When the two plates are assembled back together, move the shifter towards you and move it down all the way. Don't worry about the ball bearing, it won't fall out. Place a piece of duct tape (just what I used) over the 3 holes in the left side plate. This way ensures that the metal bearing will not slam onto the metal plate when shifting. With the added pressure from the foam being on top of the spring, it may cause a slight noise when re-assembled. So this step ensures that this will not happen. Also make sure to use a couple layers of duct tape so that the first layer doesn't wear out and then you'll have to go back in there.


Just put the shifter assembly back together and there ya go. I hope this helps all those people that HATE that clicking noise when shifting. I know I sure did!!
Hi Semus, you really must have hated the "click" to go to that much effort! But, your conclusion is incorrect (sorry). The spring does not cause the "click".

A little history, when the shifter was first designed a metal based lubricant was used to prolong the life of the latch plates. This resulted in a stone quiet mechanism. It was decided that a "click" would help users in finding gears and it also seemed like a good thing from a function point of view. The click was created by making the hole diameter where the detent ball moves slightly larger (take a close look at your part and you will see that the hole narrows down around the spring after about 6 mm). Anyway, the noise is the detent ball hitting the side of the plastic hole as it enters the detent hole in the side plate. You could add a sleeve around the ball to make the gap small and the noise will go away also with the current spring. I suspect that your foam is acting as a damper to eliminate the noise.
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Old 03-07-2007, 04:49   #6
Semus
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nismoGT-R
Just wanted to see how much of a pain in the *** it would be. I will get a G25 in a week from now and I was thinking of getting the act labs shifter (hoping for for it to feel a little better and no noise either.. ) because I had one(G25) back in January and I hated the shifter... fun but damn noise and doesent feel real at all.

I don't want to turn this into a "which shifter is better thread" so I will keep this brief. The ActLabs shifter has plates that are more of an exotic car type. You have to take it out of gear, move it, then put it into a higher gear. Saw a video on youtube about it. But don't get me wrong, the AL shifter is nice. I have one on the way, and I will decide which is better for myself. It's all about what YOU like, not what everyone says you should like.

Anyhow, the pics are coming. It is somewhat of a pain to do it but WELL worth the effort.
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Old 03-07-2007, 04:55   #7
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What do you mean by take it out of gear, move it and put it into higher gear... means i gotta move it to check its out of gear then put it in the higher gear? lol that could cost some performance... especially when you need fast shifts...
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Old 03-07-2007, 05:00   #8
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deleted.

Last edited by Semus; 03-07-2007 at 05:49.
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Old 03-07-2007, 05:05   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nismoGT-R
What do you mean by take it out of gear, move it and put it into higher gear... means i gotta move it to check its out of gear then put it in the higher gear? lol that could cost some performance... especially when you need fast shifts...

You took my post a little wrong, or maybe I didn't explain it well enough. When you are shifting with the AL shifter, it might take a little longer because the shifter itself has to come out of the lower gear, then the shifter has to be physically moved over a little bit before entering the next up gear. Now granted, you will not be stopping and then looking at the shifter, then go into another gear. Thats not what I meant. You can shift it normally, but it might take just a tad longer because you have to find the next gear on the shift plate. and the shift plate openings are not that wide. Do you understand now? You should never have to stop, look down, then shift. Thats just insane.
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Old 03-07-2007, 05:07   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Semus
Actually sir, YOU are incorrect. Take it apart and see for yourself. Move the shifter VERY VERY slightly in either direction, up or down. If you look VERY closely, and do it fast enough, you will see that when the ball comes out of it's first hole, then starts to move to a different hole, it gets sort of "stuck" in a sense, right in the middle, BEFORE it ever gets to the second hole. It clicks BEFORE it gets to the second hole. Now if you read my post a little more, you would have seen that I replaced the metal ball bearing with a rubber ball. Re-assembled it, and the click was still there. How can a rubber ball cause a clicking noise on metal? If you can explain that one to me, I'd sure like to hear that explanation. And furthermore, before even putting it completely back together, I stuck foam in the hole, then put the metal bearing back in, and the noise was reduced by more then 80%. Thats where the duct tape comes into play. Placed the tape over the 3 holes, and the noise vanished completely. That is why I added the next step in there. If you don't use duct tape or some sort of felt tape, you are somewhat right in saying that the ball can cause a noise. After doing my mod, and before the duct tape, the noise had lessened so much that doing the tape trick was just a bonus.
Hi Semus, it would be very difficult for me to be wrong: I designed it!
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Old 03-07-2007, 05:29   #11
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Originally Posted by mcman
Hi Semus, it would be very difficult for me to be wrong: I designed it!

Well perhaps you did, but my eyes and ears tell me that after doing what I did, the noise vanished. So which one of us is correct? You? Me? In all honesty, it's probably both. The metal ball without foam could hit the plastic sleeve, and click. But a metal ball with foam in the hole above the spring doesn't click. So I would have to say that both of our conclusions are correct.

EDIT: pointless

Last edited by Semus; 03-07-2007 at 05:43.
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Old 03-07-2007, 05:32   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mcman
Hi Semus, it would be very difficult for me to be wrong: I designed it!
lol.......I was just going to correct him, if you didn't. Remember seeing your posts before the launch of the G25.

Also Semus, I think you are taking the comments far too personally. He was giving background info and commenting on a part of the product he designed. I didn't see anything in his first 2 posts that suggested he was trying to be factious. Sure ppl would agree, that you tried to offer a solution just as he also just expanded on it, given his knowledge of this product.

Last edited by WickedShot; 03-07-2007 at 05:44.
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Old 03-07-2007, 05:42   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Semus
You took my post a little wrong, or maybe I didn't explain it well enough. When you are shifting with the AL shifter, it might take a little longer because the shifter itself has to come out of the lower gear, then the shifter has to be physically moved over a little bit before entering the next up gear. Now granted, you will not be stopping and then looking at the shifter, then go into another gear. Thats not what I meant. You can shift it normally, but it might take just a tad longer because you have to find the next gear on the shift plate. and the shift plate openings are not that wide. Do you understand now? You should never have to stop, look down, then shift. Thats just insane.
Nah actually I mean you know when u drive a manual car sometimes just from fun lets say u going from 2nd to 3rd u take it out of 2nd move it(shift knob) left and right couple of times and than end up sticking it in 3rd... but yeah I understand now.
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Old 03-07-2007, 05:47   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by WickedShot
lol.......I was just going to correct him, if you didn't. Remember seeing your posts before the launch of the G25.

Also Semus, I think you are taking the comments far too personally. He was giving background info and commenting on a part of the product he designed. I didn't see anything in his first 2 posts that suggested he was trying to be factious. Sure ppl would agree, that you tried to offer a solution just as he also just expanded on it, given his knowledge of this product.

That's why it's edited. It's pointless to get upset about it. He designed it, great. I came up with a solution to stop the click, great.
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Old 03-07-2007, 05:48   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nismoGT-R
Nah actually I mean you know when u drive a manual car sometimes just from fun lets say u going from 2nd to 3rd u take it out of 2nd move it(shift knob) left and right couple of times and than end up sticking it in 3rd... but yeah I understand now.

Yeah I gotcha, I just didn't want you to get the wrong idea on what I meant.
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Old 03-07-2007, 05:49   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Semus
Well perhaps you did, but my eyes and ears tell me that after doing what I did, the noise vanished. So which one of us is correct? You? Me? In all honesty, it's probably both. The metal ball without foam could hit the plastic sleeve, and click. But a metal ball with foam in the hole above the spring doesn't click. So I would have to say that both of our conclusions are correct.

EDIT: pointless
Hi Semus, sorry to upset you, it was not my intent. I have no doubt that your fix works. As I said in my first post I suspect damping of the housing by the foam.
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Old 03-07-2007, 05:59   #17
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Hi Semus, sorry to upset you, it was not my intent. I have no doubt that your fix works. As I said in my first post I suspect damping of the housing by the foam.
I know it wasn't your intent. That's why I deleted my comments. They weren't helping anything. A lot of people have been complaining about the click. Now, there might be more people that like it then dislike it. I don't have data either way. This was just something people could try, to see if it helped them. And yes, you are correct. It is in fact dampening the ball. It's just something I really hadn't thought of. But the reasons "why" it does it really isn't my concern. I was just giving out info that might help others with something they might find annoying. But different people react to it in different ways. It was something that annoyed me from the very first day. And I knew as soon as I bought it, the warranty was going right out the window as soon as I got home. I also took the pedals out and turned them upside down and attached them to a piece of wood from underneath so that they felt more like a real car. But thats another thread
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Old 05-07-2007, 15:00   #18
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After using the Act-Labs and G25 shifters, it seems to me that the G25 shifter has a much shorter travel (good). I used to frequently miss a shift by hitting the point of the Act-Labs gate with the stick which doesn't happen with the G25.

The G25 feel is much lighter (not so good) and I like the click personally. With tongue in cheek, I'd suggest that if it sounds too loud, turn up the engine volume I use headphones most of the time, though.
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Old 05-07-2007, 23:05   #19
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I know this may sounds silly to many people but I thought that I would share what I have done with my setup in regards to the clicking.

I race with headphones - as I am sure many people do - but I have added something that gives a little extra to the feel. I have a multi-coloured light that has sound imput from either a sound source or from the room. I set the sensitivty very high and when I am racing with my headphones when I shift the noise flashes the light - so I know I am in gear. Also if my wheel jumps or shakes the light flashes as well. Gives me a sense of emergency when shifting and taking turns and gives a secondary input of what is going on.
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Old 07-07-2007, 05:29   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob Simpson
After using the Act-Labs and G25 shifters, it seems to me that the G25 shifter has a much shorter travel (good). I used to frequently miss a shift by hitting the point of the Act-Labs gate with the stick which doesn't happen with the G25.

The G25 feel is much lighter (not so good) and I like the click personally. With tongue in cheek, I'd suggest that if it sounds too loud, turn up the engine volume I use headphones most of the time, though.

I have the actlabs shifter, and I made a few modifications to the shift plates so that it is very hard to miss a gear when shifting. All you really have to do is cut the plate ends down a bit at a slight angle so that if you do hit the plate end, it might find its way in anyhow. Helps to cut the plate ends down because the stock position has them coming out way too far. Looks more like an exotic car shifter plate then a race shifter.
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Old 08-07-2007, 14:58   #21
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Great! And good pics!

I'm going to try this!
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Old 05-11-2007, 20:18   #22
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The ball that hits the gate is not what makes the clicking sound. It is the ball hitting the internal wall inside the housing of the spring/ball. I have made some pic showing how to fix the clicking sound and how the click works. I spent all last night doing the no click mod with foam and it did not work. So I investigated for hours in till I found out what make the clicking sound. I did this mod with only a silicon tube and a little bit of Teflon tape(one used for pluming) to keep ball in tube firm. This prevents the ball from smashing into the wall of the chamber holding the spring and ball in place. When i did the foam no click mod between the ball and spring it did nothing.

I will be posting more pictures in the "G25 shifter mod" forum on how to do my mod with more detail pictures on how to open your G25 shifter (for others that are scared to open and mess around in there).
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G25-Click.JPG   G25-Click-MOD.JPG  
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Old 07-11-2007, 01:18   #23
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more pics on my mod here post# 16 http://forum.racesimcentral.com/showthread.php?t=299371
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Old 26-11-2007, 11:01   #24
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Hey I received my second G25 (rfactor box) and the factory isnt same as the first time ...
no clicking sound in my Shifter, new improvement ???
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Old 26-11-2007, 12:07   #25
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i hope i get the clicking sound in the one i just ordered i've been in many sports car exotic's all those and all of them had some sort of clicking sound not as much as the g25 for most but still i'm a fan of the clicking im sure one day il get annoyed by it and try out this mod so TY!!! but until then il just leave it with a great job and best discription ever

And one last thing if the click is made by the ball hitting the shaft ( lol that sounds so wrong ) how come it still made the noise when he was using a rubber ball?
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