So, I wasn’t quite pleased with how the repair turned out last time. Sure the haptic motor worked, but it wasn’t quite as distinct as before the repair and the thumb pad didn’t feel as good as it didn’t quit click when you pushed it on the top or right side. I think it’s the soldered on cables taking up some extra space in the unit that’s the reason for the trouble..

So after repairing the unit I ordered a new haptic unit from ebay. It turns out the unit from the nintendo switch controller is supposed to work in the vive controller as well, but when I got the new haptic unit it was dead, no internal resistance and no function. So I got a refund, and ordered another one from another seller. It showed up last week, so here goes:

Started with opening up the unit. Unfortunately my old T5 low-grade-cheap-o wrench broke the last time, so I had to get a new precision driver kit this week.. but the thin part of the T5 was too short..

.. so I had to modify it a bit to work for the screws in the controller handle..

Opened up the controller and removed the original haptic unit and compared it to the new Nintendo Switch one..

As far as I can tell it’s the exact same unit. The last one I got even had the same numbers imprinted on it..

After removing the cables and soldering the new unit directly to the flat cable it was time for a quick test before putting it all together again.. The installation looks much cleaner now with the unit soldered to the flat cable in this way..

After putting it all together again the controller works as good as it did when it was new. So for the future, if the haptic unit breaks I’ll get a new one for $6 instead of going through the process of opening up the metal casing and re-soldering the unit.

Success!