How to replace the plastic on an iPod clickwheel

[@MrNaildriver01]

So was it the wheel or the board that was the problem. I have the same situation I swapped a wheel from a gen 5 and put it in a 5.5 it neither works but the 5.5 wheel works in the 5. So how can you tell if its the wheel or the board?

[@antdavisonNZ]

just soak in methylated spirits for half an hour to dissolve the glue, 3M ipod adhesive pads for clickwheels can be bought on eBay If you are modding MINI clickwheels to take later plastics - read more ====== 1) remove the 4 rear clickwheel screws, and disassemble as much as you can without pulling apart any glued components ... put both black and white glued-together clickwheel assemblies in a small container of methylated spirits for 1/2 an hour ... isopropyl alcohol would also probably work ... this will loosen the glue used to attach the plastics to the circuit board which tracks the finger movements 2) the black plastic outer has some protruding tabs on its underside which i removed with a sharp blade, they were used to align the plastic with the finger-track circuit board 3) from memory, i think i used a hand held spherical-looking grindstone to remove some material around the inside hole of the underside of the black plastic clickwheel .... do by hand, not with a machine, and slowly; i think i recall also using a flat blade around the inner bottom of the black clickwheel which stops the button rotating, as that portion interfered with the mini's finger-track circuit board 4) the inner clickwheel button also needs trimming with a small file, removing the 4 anti-rotation tabs on its circumference, and i think i sanded both it's bottom surface and circurmference; 5th gen are flat plastic, 6th gen are dished aluminium 5) removing the tabs as in #4 will cause the inner button to be able to rotate, so get the white button, sand the domed top surface off until it is quite thin, and glue that to the underside of the 'black' button, the tabs on the underside of the old white button will then locate into the mini assembly 6) everything needs to be fitted so the centre push button works correctly, but without any slop; so take your time, it is easy to remove too much plastic, too quickly ... put some tape over the clickwheel when re-inserting into the case, to stop it being scratched if the black click wheel is affixed to the finger-track circuit board, or better still, cut up a square of thin flat plastic sheet (like you find on a plastic blister pack), a bit bigger than the click wheel a put it above the clickwheel plastic, and slide it out after inserting the assembly into the case 7) you can get some special ipod clickwheel 3M adhesive pads from ebay to affix the black plastic to the finger wheel circuit board which is what i did, but double sided tape or easily dissolvable glue would work as well ... don't use water based glue ... take your time getting the alignment correct; the 3M pads only give you one chance

[@dbbyres]

Sorry I’m late, so you’re mechanically separating two parts held together with adhesive? Could you soak the entire assembly in iso alcohol and let it dissolve the adhesive instead?

[@evprkr3914]

Hey sorry I missed this! Yeah, I'm just separating the two pieces by using the metal spudger to get in between them and weaken the adhesive. It's been a few years, I've learned more, and I *think* you could probably get away with using alcohol for this. Obviously don't soak the ribbon cable part, but the wheel itself should be fine. Alternatively, looking back I think that using a heat gun on LOW could also speed up the process. You'd really want to be careful not to keep the heat too close, since I don't know what the heat tolerance of the clickwheel plastic is. Maybe a hairdryer would work better than a heatgun in that case. I think low heat would be more efficient than alcohol though.

[@cemsengul16]

So if I transplant an oem plastic cover on a new click wheel, the wheel would fit a new aftermarket shell and still have the oem texture?

[@evprkr3914]

Yup, should fit just fine. Both the 7th gen and transparent 5.5 I showed in this video have aftermarket shells and both clickwheels sit flush after having the plastics transplanted. The only reason I even "invented" this mod was because I'm *just* neurotic enough that the plastic not sitting flush bothered me.

[@cemsengul16]

@@evprkr3914 I am the same!

[@linkthehero1234]

thanks, im guessing the buttons for 6th gens will just work with a 5(.5)th gen?

[@treedot948]

I think the 6th gen uses the same wheel as the 7th gen, so it won't work in a 5(.5) unfortunately :( Even though they look similar they're very slightly different, when you plug the new wheel into an older iPod it doesn't recognize it at all and also doesn't respond to button presses. Super strange. I'm hoping someday we can figure out a way to make them work.

[@itsbtunes]

I have the same problem with my 5th gen. I don't understand why