How the shifter test works
This page skips the steering and pedal set-up: an H-pattern shifter reports its gears as ordinary buttons, one button per gear, and has no axes for the set-up to find. Thrustmaster’s own TH8A instructions reflect this, telling you to set games to “button pushed = gear shift”. So the shifter card comes first, and as soon as the browser sees a device, the tester asks you to put the shifter in 1st, then 2nd and so on to reverse, and learns which button each gear is.
- Connect the shifter, through the wheel base or by USB, and switch the wheel on if it goes through the wheel.
- Move the lever once so the browser reveals the device. Browsers only show a controller after it sends input.
- Follow the prompts: engage each gear from 1st to 6th, then reverse. On a five-speed gate, choose Done (no more gears) after 5th. A sequential shifter, such as the TH8A with its sequential plate, is just two buttons: push for 1st, pull for 2nd, then Done.
- Now shift through every gear again. Each one lights in the H-pattern and gets a mark once it has registered. When every gear you taught has been engaged again, the card says so.
A Logitech G29 is recognised by name, so its usual shifter buttons are preset: Logitech lists the Driving Force Shifter’s gears 1 to 6 and reverse as buttons 12 to 18 on the G29 (Logitech support, as of October 2026). Logitech counts from 0 and this page from 1, so here they are buttons 13 to 19. On that wheel you can shift through straight away; if the wrong gear lights, choose Learn shifter.
What to look for
- A gear that never lights: engage it firmly, then check the button grid under All buttons and axes. If no button changes, the shifter doesn’t report that gear at all: check the cable or the connector on the wheel base before you blame the switch.
- The wrong gear lights: the buttons differ from what the tester expected. Choose Learn shifter and teach it again.
- A gear flickers while you hold the lever still: a worn or dirty contact. Games will drop into neutral at the same moments.
- Reverse doesn’t engage: Logitech’s Driving Force Shifter engages reverse by pushing the lever down, and other shifters use a lift ring or a push-down gate. Check that you are doing what the manual asks before suspecting the shifter.
Wheels, pedals and paddles too
The wheel and pedals are optional here: choose Find next to steering or a pedal in the set-up under the shifter to test them as well, and Learn paddles for the paddle shifters. For the whole wheel at once, use the steering wheel tester or the page for your wheel: G29, G920, G923 or Thrustmaster. Pedals alone have the pedal tester.