Fanatec GT3RS V1 to GT3RS V2 Tutorial by Roy Visser 1
How to update your Fanatec GT3RS V1 wheel to a GT3RS V2 wheel Welcome to this guided and detailed tutorial for upgrading your Fanatec GT3RS V1 wheel to the new and improved Fanatec GT3RS V2 wheel. I will guide you step to step in the installation and tried to make it as detailed as possible. The most important thing to remember when following this tutorial is this: Patience and read carefully, if you follow the instructions nothing can go wrong and you will be on the virtual road again soon! This tutorial has been written by Roy Visser for Fanatec, if you have any questions, please use the 911 wheel forums, or send me a pm. My username on the 911 wheel blog is Roy Visser. Email for questions is also possible: Roy@sr-academy.nl 2
Step 1 The tools you need are the following: - Philips Head Screwdriver - 2.5mm Allen Wrench (sometimes also a 3mm Allen Wrench) - Hobby knife - Pocket knife - Pliers - Tape 3
Step 2 Use the pocket knife to gentle pry open the Grey lid with Porsche logo on top of the wheel. Be really gentle as this is an operation which can have devastating effects to the look of the wheel. If you don t have a pocket knife, use something similar to the non sharp shape. Gentle pry the lid of the wheel by going around it and prying it on different sides until its far enough out so you can jiggle it all the way off. 4
Step 3 Once you have removed the lid, this is what you will see. The inner workings of your wheel. Look into the center, you will see 3 philipshead screws. These are the screws you need to remove in order to get the wheel of its axle. This screws might be hard to unscrew (remember righty tighty, lefty loosy) since they have been secured with loctite (some sort of glue). Once you ve unscrewed a screw and managed to drop it into the wheel, no worries, you ll soon be able to get the screw back. 5
Step 4 Now that the wheel is loose from its axle, gently pull it off until you can freely move the wheel. You have about 4cm of slack in the electric cord, so it shouldn t be too much of a problem. Now look at the back of the wheel, you will see 4 holes. In here are also 4 philipshead screws. Remove these aswell. 6
Step 5 Once the 4 screws are removed, you can remove the centerpiece of the wheel. You will end up looking at this: 7
Step 6 Now we are going to remove the left and right buttons. Use the pair of pliers and grip around the metal axle which is sticking out. Gently pull it out. If it s far enough out to grip it with your fingers and pull it fully out. You can then remove the buttons. 8
Step 7 The lower buttons are actually just pushed on. Use 2 fingers on either side of the button and gently pull, the POV button and Select-Start button will easily pop off 9
Step 8 You can now also remove the small lcd window, and your wheel will look like this. 10
Step 9 Unplug the 3 plugs (2 for the vibration motors) And one USB plug. You will find 4 screws on the pcb, remove these. The only thing holding the pcb in place is a small ball on the bottom of the wheel, and a cable on the back of the pcb. Gently remove the pcb. 11
Step 10 This is the backside of the pcb, the main plug is positioned here. Notice the nasty yellow stuff on it. It is very hard to remove this from the plug. Fortunatly, if you don t want to use the old pcb and wires as spare parts, you can just cut the wires for this main plug (the one with all the yellow stuff on it, and 18 wires coming out of it). DO NOT CUT THE WIRES FROM THE SMALLER USB PLUG SINCE YOU NEED IT FOR V2!! If you want to use the pcb and plug as spares, use the hobby knife to gently scrape off the yellow glue. Remove the plug after you ve scraped enough off. 12
Step 11 You will now have the whole PCB lose from the steeringwheel. Only thing left to remove are the small white caps on top of the buttons. There are 2 on the backside of the pcb for the shifters, and 14 on the front. Don t loose them, since you will need them on the new pcb. 13
Step 12 Now turn the whole wheel upside down and remove the standard paddle shifters 14
Step 13 Turn the wheel around again, and you will see that the part where the shifters are attached to, can be removed without unscrewing anything. It s just clicked in place behind plastic hooks. Use your pocket knife to open one side of the hooks up, and pull out the part. 15
Step 14 Now you need to push the wires out of the wheel itself. If you cut the main cable, this will be easy, if you haven t, just push the plugs through sideways 16
Step 15 Remove the screw on the top of the casing, do not remove the others! 17
Step 16 Remove the 5 allen screws, sometimes the screws circled in red are 3mm instead of 2.5mm. 18
Step 17 Remove the lid of the wheel base, but make sure you do it gently, since you don t want to lose the 5 nuts which are placed in the lid. I super glued these so I can t lose them. 19
Step 18 Don t be alarmed by this view, it looks more difficult than it is! Might want to take a break at this point and simply admire the great mechanics of your wheel. 20
Step 19 Pull the main cable and the usb cable through the center of the wheel. This is a little fiddly if you haven t removed the plug from the main cable, but you ll soon get it. Make sure you don t damage the usb cable, since you will need this. 21
Step 20 Now we will start disambling the wheel so we can replace the main pcb. Remove the big fan by removing the 2 screws. 22
Step 21 Remove the 2 PCB screws (lower left and upper right) This will free the pcb so you can more easily remove all the plugs. Also cut through the zip ty so you can move the wires around more easily. 23
Step 22 Now remove before removing all plugs, use the tape to name them, or give them the numbers which I have put on the next page. This is very important since it makes pluging in the plugs in the new pcb a lot easier! Once you have removed all plugs, this is what your old pcb will look like The wiring diagram is on the following page! 24
Wiring PCB 11 = USB Cable which you have taken out of the wheel and wheel axle 12 = New Base Button Plug 13 = New Main Plug X = you don t need to use this, this plug is only used on new GTR3RS V2 wheels and is for the on and off switch 25
Step 23 Remove the old base button, just unscrew the 2 screws Now place the new base button which came in the upgrade kit You also got a new cable in the upgrade kit, use it for the new base button 26
Step 24 Now we are going to replace the positioning sensor. Remove the small silver screw, and pry the tiny pcb out gently Replace it with the new Sensor, be very carefully with touching the diodes and the sensor, take your time and pry it in gently. 27
Step 24 Now it s time to place the pcb back into position, and put in the wires. Do a little bit of cable management and make sure none of the cables are touching any rotating parts. Remember that USB cord I told you to be careful with, free the cable from its plastic translucent harness by cutting the harness open. You will see it in the bottom of this picture. Once you have secured all cables, and hooked them up in the right spot, give yourself a pat on the back, your almost homefree! 28
Step 25 Do the final cable management, check all wires, and use a zipty to tighten the cables a bit together. Place the big fan back in position. And your work inside the base is almost done. 29
Step 26 If you haven t already done this (which if you are following this tutorial correctly you shouldn t have) feed the new main cable through the center axle of the wheel. 30
Step 27 Now we are going to place the wheel back. Rotate the axle all the way to the left (until it won t turn any further to the left, and place the steering wheel 90 degrees to the left, and put in 1 screw. 31
Step 28 Rotate the wheel 450 degrees to the right, this is your center position. Remove the screw again. And place the new frame with the paddle shifters in position. It should snap inplace, take a good look at how the cables from the vibration motors are positioned, they should not run underneath the new frame! Feed them through the small gap 32
Step 29 Get your new steeringwheel pcb that comes with the upgrade kit, turn it around so you are facing the back of the pcb. It is VERY IMPORTANT TO NOT FORGET TO USE THE SMALL WHITE CAPS ON THE PADDLE SHIFTER BUTTONS (the white caps we took of the buttons of the old pcb). 33
Step 30 Put the pcb back in its position in the wheel itself. (might be a tighter fit then the old pcb) Don t forget about the ball on the bottom, make sure to push the pcb over the ball first, before pressing it in the upper part of the wheel. Make sure the cables for the vibration motors are fed through the center, aswell as the main plug. 34
Step 31 Replace the 4 screws which hold the pcb. Also put back the 14 white caps over all the buttons. 35
Step 32 Replace all the buttons and the new LCD Window (make sure you can push the lcd/tuning buttons easily, if this is not the case, unscrew the 4 screws from the pcb a bit, and try to position it a bit lower, this should put less stress on the lcd buttons). Remember that the lower buttons just snap in place (first POV button, then the Select-Start button) and that you need to push the metal bars through the left and right buttons 36
Step 33 Replace the centercap from the steeringwheel and tighten the 4 screws on the back. 37
Step 34 Put back the lid on the base, and put in the small black screw on the front (or just leave it out since it s a whole lot easier to open the case without this little annoying screw) 38
Step 35 Put back the 5 allen screws in the base make sure you still have all the nuts in place inside the base lid! 39
Step 36 Put back the 3 screws which attach the wheel to the base, don t drop them into the wheel, use a magnetic philipshead screw driver, or gently hold them in position with your fingers while screwing them in place. 40
Step 37 Press the center piece with Porsche logo back in place, your almost done! Remember we have a nice new upgrade for our wheel, this upgrade also comes with new shifter paddles! You can choose to put back the old paddles, or the new clubsport paddles! Whichever one you chose, you are done and you can enjoy your newly upgraded V2 wheel! Have fun with it, if you have any questions, please use the 911 wheel forums, or send me a pm. My username on the 911 wheel blog is Roy Visser. Email for questions is also possible: Roy@sr-academy.nl Small notice after completing the installation: - You will need to recalibrate the 6speed Shifter - The left tuning button does not have a function (yet ;) ) - Check the Porsche Wheel Property Page and make sure all functions work before hardmounting it back into your gaming rig. - Enjoy 41