Paddle shifters write-up / video and all the reference material

[B&RB]

I have put all the below information in a nice video here:

Long time listener, first time caller and I'm tackling the paddle shifter install on my 2014 Caprice PPV. After rummaging through the vast, but a little disjointed, information on this forum, I felt mostly up to the task, and then a little more motivated to both create the following post and the youtube video liked at the top.

This whole project started because every time I touched my steering wheel, I felt like I needed to bathe my hands in holy water and brake clean. It was gross. So, I ordered part number [22790891 Inferno Orange Steering Wheel] for a Camaro. From what I could tell the steering wheel was a fit for an SS as well as my Caprice and everything would bolt up and work, including cruise control. Spoiler alert, it works great.

I ran a wire from X85 Steering Wheel Air Bag Coil X1 (connector behind the clockspring) pin 8, to a switch, then to connector K9 Body Control Module X2 (the blue connector of the BCM) Pin 11. A quick note here; I wish I had run 24 guage wire the whole length. I probably would have been easier, and it is more than enough to carry the electrical load. Also, I would have fit in the connector and pins much better. I did things the hard way first. Learn from my mistakes.

I ordered the pins from Mouser, 306-SNAC3-A021T-M0.64 & 306-SAIT-A03T-M064 that were called for in the wire pinout and they went in without issue. I made sure the Body Control Module (BCM) plug pins were seated just as far as the other pins because everyone said they go in deeper than I might think.

The new steering wheel had a pin in hole 8 from the paddles. I continued that circuit from the steering wheel clockspring to the BCM plug pin 11; listed in the pinout as the Tap Up / Tap Down (TUTD) switch Signal. After I ran the wire from the clockspring connector to the blue BCM plug, I installed a switch in the circuit to enable/disable the circuit. Then, I got on HP tuners and enabled TUTD and went for a drive. After I had ironed out some issues with the circuit interruptor button wiring, I can manipulate the paddles and see the little gear icon blink and feel the crispy shifts.


Now, the transmission stays in gear much like a manual and it even makes some level of drifting possible. The difference between the slushbox feel of normal driving modes and the crisp, and borderline violent, shifts offered up in manual mode are almost as drastic as my wife’s personality changes.

A big shout out to the hard work in Nate68c10's write-up and smwalker did a brilliant write-up about the various circuits involved.



Below I'll put the HP tuners Trans screen entries.

HP Tuners:

Tap-up/Tap-Down (changes are bold)
TUTD > Enabled
TUTD type > Serial
IP Display > Enabled
Up/Down Req > Disable
Hold Shift > Enabled
Mountain mode > Disabled
Range Select > Disabled
Range Active > D6

[elc32955]

Thanks very much for the hard work you've put into this on behalf of fellow owners. I'll admit that forum systems can be a bit disjointed chasing information elements from topic to topic, but that's the main reason we installed the Knowledge Base system on here. Now if we could just convince people to use it and post some write ups in there....

I'm going to sticky this topic so it stays on the masthead of this subforum to make it easier to find. That'll mean a very quick search to get to the content.

Thanks again!
Eric

[s/c'd cav]

saving for future use , i really need to get mine done

[BluesBro]

saving for future use , i really need to get mine done

Me too, I've had the ZL1 steering wheel for a year and just haven't had the motivation to pull the dash apart again.

[grifbomb]

If you change Range Select to Enabled and Range Active to D3, the paddles work only when the transmission is shifted into L. This effectively replaces L mode with a manual mode. It's easy to bump the shifter in and out of L and D to accomplish this, and it's way better than a switch in my opinion

[Eqcj]

Any information on enabling paddle shifters while retaining the use of the shifter lever? Unlike the PPV, my Caprice already has a wire connected to BCM X2, pin 11. Therefore, I need a different approach, as I still want to be able to shift using both the shifter lever and the paddle shifters. I would appreciate any information—I haven't been able to find diagrams for the shifter lever in the Middle East-spec Caprice