Anyone installed or thought of installing paddle shifters?
08-16-2015, 09:58 PM
#21
Really depends on the type of driving you do... On mountain roads with lots of switchbacks, I use them all the time. For city or typical freeway driving, not so much.
11-05-2017, 07:58 PM
#22
I installed AMG paddle shifters on my Raptor steering wheel that I use in my XLT and was able to wire them through the clockspring so they are hardwired to the same harness that the button on the shift **** uses. They turned out great.
Last edited by nerdh3rd; 03-01-2023 at 03:09 PM.
12-22-2017, 08:01 AM
#24
I was able to find 3 open locations for pins on the steering wheel connector that mate up with 3 open locations on the SCCM connector (the truck side of the clockspring). I ended up using two - one for upshift, one for downshift, and used the grounding point on the steering wheel itself for ground/common.
I created a template from cardboard for the AMG paddles so I knew how much to cut out, and used an exacto knife and dremel to hollow out an opening in the foam for the paddle to sit in, and drilled a hole from inside that opening towards the inside bottom of the steering wheel to route the wire - there is a plastic shroud on the backside that is removable and hides the wiring/hole nicely.
The trickiest part for me was drilling a hole for the mounting screw, as the F150 steering wheel doesn't have any removable trim on the front side to give you access to the metal innards of the steering wheel. I've noticed that some other Ford vehicles like the Focus have a trim piece on the front that can be removed and exposes the innards to make lining up and drilling a hole easy. I ended up using a pushpin with some wet paint on the end taped to the mounting hole of the paddle (hard to explain, but it's the best method I could come up with) and set the paddle in place to transfer a mark to the steering wheel where I needed to drill. I drilled back to front and at a bit of an angle, which allowed the the screw hole to come out on the inner side of the steering wheel where it is hidden when the airbag is mounted.
As mentioned above, I ran the upshift/downshift wiring to the connector and crimped on correct pins that I had from another project. On the truck side, the two wires from the SCCM connector got routed down to an inline connector just under the dash, where I soldered them into the existing truck harness. Since my truck has the shift button on the gear selector, there was a couple of places that I could have tapped around the steering wheel, but the connector I chose had easy access for the soldering iron. Below are some pictures I took of the connectors that the wires match up to, as well as the inline connector under the dash that I tapped into for upshift/downshift.
Last edited by nerdh3rd; 03-01-2023 at 03:09 PM.