(This is a re-post of what I wrote on the iracing forum but as not everyone has access to that I thought I would post it here for you guys too)
Hi everyone,
So my shifter sequential return spring decided to break again. I reasoned that it must be the spring which had failed so I did a little dis-assembly and sure enough it was indeed the spring. The first time this happened I sent it for repair but given that I had already taken the unit apart and found the cause pretty easily I contacted Fanatec for just a replacement spring so I could do the job myself and save a bit of time.
The spring turned up today so I thought I'd put a little guide together for anyone who has the same issue and would rather avoid the whole shipping boxes and whatnot around (personally, I think these springs should be in the Fanatec web store as I have no doubt I will break another one at some point!)
To perform this you will need:
1 x Fanatec Spring
1 x 2.5 mm Hex key
1 x 3 mm Hex key
1 x 4 mm Hex key
or A ratchet set with long reach extensions and hex bits in the previously mentioned sizes.
1 x Long nose pliers
15 minutes (or less!) I timed myself whilst performing the repair and including taking pictures I managed this in just 13m 40s.
Procedure
1) First
place the shifter in H-Pattern mode and use the 3 mm hex key to remove the 4 bolts holding the top of the shifter to the base, these aren't particularly tight so should be pretty simple.
2) Next, lift the top of the shifter off the base carefully, you will see one wire attached to a switch in the base. This is the switch which when you move the slider switches between sequential and H-Pattern modes. Disconnect this wire from the top part of the shifter by undoing the small white connector. I find wiggling the connector from side to side works best to remove it. It is the connector on the left in the image below.
3) Next you must use the 2.5 mm key and the 4 mm key to undo the 3 bolts holding the H-Pattern gate to the bottom of the shifter. These bolts are relatively tight so I suggest if you have a ratchet set you may want to use that instead. I would also suggest you don't fully remove any bolts until you have loosened all 3 to prevent the H gate spinning. You can see these bolts in the picture below. The two in the upper corners are the 2.5 mm bolts and the lower one is the 4 mm bolt.
Now that you have removed the bolts you may lift the H gate out. Note that the long bolt has a larger spacer underneath the gate which I suggest lifting out at the same time, keep this to one side for later. This will be greasy so be mindful of where you place it, I suggest a paper towel.
4) You should now see something like this.
However, note I have already removed the spring which would be sitting under the middle 'post' on the left hand side in the above image. Use the 2.5 mm key to undo this bolt which will now free the broken spring. Mine was split in two right along one of the coils under this post, I suspect yours will be the same. Retain the bolt and spacer for later.
5) Now for the tricky part. As you can see from the above image, the new spring wraps over itself. As far as I can see this makes its orientation practically irrelevant to operation so don't worry too much about that. What it does make difficult however is fitting it. If you place the spring in over the post you will also now notice that the spring tail ends overlap the guide on the right hand side of the shifter. I did not remove the guide which is held in with two cross-head screws but it may make the next step easier if you choose to do this.
What you must do is place the spring onto the post and note the tail which sits 'underneath' the other, you want to rotate the spring so that this tail slides under the guide on whichever side is lower. This is quite difficult to explain but once you have it right it will look like the picture below.
You can see that the lower tail is now in position and sitting against the aluminium flat which prevents it rotating beyond its static unloaded position.
6) At this point I suggest refitting the bolt and spacer above the spring seat and spinning the bolt on at least 4 threads. This will prevent the spring escaping should you make a mistake in the next part.
Ok, So now you want to take your pliers and grab around 3-4 mm from the end of the unseated spring tail and pull it towards its resting position but you must keep pulling until the spring tail is deflected far enough to go beyond the end of the tail guide. You should now lower the tail into the guide and either hold it as you move it back to center or release the spring (if you're that kind of person). The spring will now have seated itself in its resting position. This may feel like it takes a fair bit of effort to do it but the spring CAN take it, I would just suggest holding the base as you perform this and deflecting the spring no more than necessary. It should now look like the below image.
7) You may now tighten up the bolt above the spring seat, I noticed the spacer on this bolt had a flat on it so I positioned this over the point where the spring tails exited the coils as I assumed it was either for clearance or I just happened to have one which was an odd shape. At this point I also suggest either applying new grease to the spring or using some of the existing grease within the shifter to grease the spring tails and the coils, you don't need much.
8) Now place the long spacer into the base for the H gate before replacing the H gate and its 3 screws. Don't worry too much about orientation of the H gate, it can only fit one way so you'll know if you have it right or not since if it is rotated the bolts will not line up and if it is upside down the countersunk bolts will not seat correctly. I suggest getting each bolt to grab a few threads first before tightening them progressively in a cycle, this way the gate should seat itself correctly. It should now look like this:
9) Finally, take the top portion of the shifter, orientate it so that the connector port sits in the groove at the back and lower it into position. Whilst doing this, I suggest you use your other hand to locate the previously disconnected wire and reconnect it to the top portion of the shifter. This can be a bit tricky so I suggest lining up the top portion first before then just lifting the right side of the top portion enough that you can grab the wire and reattach it. The long nose pliers may be useful here if you have big hands.
Once that is connected simply re-seat the top and replace the 4 3 mm head bolts and tighten in alternating fashion. There's no need to do these up super tight as I imagine you may need to repeat this job at some point in the future!
10) You're done, give it a few pulls and see if it works, check in game that it works correctly (no need to re-calibrate) and hopefully your shifter is now all sorted
I appreciate this problem likely only affects a very small minority and make no mistake the shifter is great but things do break and I thought with it being such a simple repair people may wish to undertake it themselves.
Function over style, right?
