Navigator Steering Wheel Swap for Non-Redundant Control Ex's: How-to
 

I had the idea to swap an '01 Lincoln Navigator steering wheel with wood and redundant audio controls into my '02 Excursion with only cruise controls.

I first saw the mod on FTE here, but since no one knew how to make the redundant controls work, I bought an entire Navigator steering column to get the wiring harness/clock spring I thought I needed. I came from a real nice Mineral Gray '01 Nav (built 5/01) with 84k...it was a Cash for Clunkers... At least I could save the steering wheel.

If you just want to swap a Navigator or Blackwood wheel on and you already have a wheel with radio controls, follow the instructions in this thread: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...l#post10870332

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/a...1&d=1507729926

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/a...1&d=1507729988

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/a...1&d=1507729988

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/a...1&d=1507729988

Let it be known that this is not an easy mod to do it right. You will need:

- Navigator (or Expedition/Excursion if you prefer all leather) steering wheel
- Clock spring assembly
- Steering wheel puller
- Socket set
- Small flat blade screwdriver
- Large (T-47) torx bit on socket, with at least 3/8" drive for removing steering wheel
- Rachet and short extension for the torx bit
- Small torx set for removing PATS module
- Wire snips
- Soldering iron/shrink tubing/electrical tape
- An interest in making the wiring work!

While the wiring on mine still needs to get finished (haven't had the time yet), here's pictures of the process up through now.

The stock wheel as it sat, with 120,333.4 miles. Not worn bad, but starting on some of the seams and the small spot in the lower left was there when I bought it and won't come off. The wear wasn't my motivation, but rather the fact that I could gain the wood and the extra controls.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/a...1&d=1507729988

1. While not required, it's a good idea to park the vehicle with the steering wheel visually straight.

2. Before doing anything, it's critical to disable the airbag. I've heard different schools of thought on this, including to disconnect the battery for ten minutes and to pull the fuse for the airbag (third one down on the very right side for me). I did both to just be on the safe side.

3. So after ten minutes, with the small flat blade screwdriver, remove the two plugs on the back of the steering wheel, giving access to the airbag bolts.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/a...1&d=1507729988

4. Remove the two bolts attaching the airbag to the steering wheel. They are 5/16".

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/a...1&d=1507729988

5. Get a small flat blade screwdriver. Sit up in the drivers seat and carefully pull the airbag toward you. On the back side of the airbag, there are two plugs that have to be disconnected. They have small snap things holding the plugs together that you have to work loose.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/a...1&d=1507729988

6. Once you get the airbag disconnected, store it in a safe place out of your way.

7. Get the T-47 torx bit and rachet. Loosen the main steering wheel bolt a little so that it's out maybe 1/4".

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/a...1&d=1507729988

8. Get the steering wheel puller and attach it to the wheel. Tighten the puller however yours works and the wheel should pop out against the bolt.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/a...1&d=1507729988

9. Make sure you manually turn the wheel back to a visually straight position if it got moved at all in the loosening/pulling process.

10. Get the torx bit/rachet again and loosen the bolt the rest of the way so you can remove it by hand.

11. Disconnect the plugs for the cruise control buttons that connect the wheel to the clock spring.

12. Carefully grab the wheel and pull it off, watching and guiding the now-disconnected airbag plug through the hole. The column trim does not have to be off at this point.

Here's what it will look like with the wheel off:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/a...1&d=1507729988

13. Put the old wheel on the side, out of your way.

14. Remove the lower dash access panel

15. Remove the column tilt lever and the steering column lower plastic trim (3 screws)

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/a...1&d=1507729988

Also remove the tilt lever with a wrench or small crescent wrench (it needs to be narrow too)

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/a...1&d=1507729988

16. Trace the wires from the clock spring down to the base where they plug in. They are basically straight back from the opening behind the access panel. What appears to be the clock spring harness actually has two plugs- one for the controls/horn, and one for the airbag. One should be gray and the other should be black.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/a...1&d=1507729988

**Note, the small gray box and the associated red/black wires at the bottom of the pic is the control box for my CB...

17. Insert your ignition key into the ignition and turn to the run position. Since you have the bottom trim off of the column, you should see the bottom of the cylinder where the ignition is. There should be a small hole there, in which you should push the small flat blade screwdriver up into to depress the small ball bearing holding the ignition switch in.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/a...1&d=1507729988

18. While pushing in the button, grab the ignition switch and pull out. It should slide right out.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/a...1&d=1507729988

19. Start to take the wiring loom out of the column. It goes up the right side of the column and it's held up by two clips.

20. Trace the small wire from the loom that goes to the small contact piece in the ignition cylinder. Carefully pull out the contact piece and let it hang down.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/a...1&d=1507729988

21. Get the small torx set and loosen the PATS module, which is the small box near the ignition cylinder held in by one screw. You need to loosen this a ways in order to get the entire clockspring harness out.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/a...1&d=1507729988

22. The clockspring should be mostly free at this point. Now take the flat blade screwdriver and carefully pry the tabs holding the clockspring. They are located on the back side at about 12:00 and 6:00. Pry the tabs back just a little (don't break them) and wiggle the clock spring off.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/a...1&d=1507729988

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/a...1&d=1507729988

23. If there's a small plastic collar piece on the steering column after removing the clock spring, pry that off with a screwdriver (it will put up a little fight). The Navigator clock spring I bought has it molded to it and won't work unless the old piece is removed.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/a...1&d=1507729988

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/a...1&d=1507729988

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/a...1&d=1507729988

The tear down should be complete now.


TO PREPARE THE NEW CLOCK SPRING:

1. Cut off the differing plugs on the clock springs. Set the old clock spring and the new plug aside.

2. Don't touch the small black airbag plugs on either.

3. Match up and solder the wires using the old plug on the new clock spring.

The cruise only plug has the following wire colors:
- Large black with pink stripe
- Green with orange stripe
- Royal Blue
- Small black
- Yellow
- Light Blue with black stripe

The Navigator plug has the following wire colors:
- Large black with pink stripe
- Royal Blue
- Brown
- Light blue with black stripe
- Light blue with red stripe
- White with blue stripe
- Small black

The following colors were the same for me:
- Royal Blue
- Light Blue/black stripe
- Small Black
- Large Black with pink stripe (for that ignition contact)- you could remove the entire contact from the old harness and keep it connected if you don't want to solder)

What I traced them to:

Vehicle Wire Colors/Uses:
- Royal Blue wire: Cruise On only
- Green with orange: Not Used
- Solid black: Remaining cruise buttons (more consistent, lower ohm ratings)
- Large Black with Pink stripe: Ignition sensor thing (don't know technical name)
- Blue with Black Stripe: Remaining cruise buttons (varying, large ohm ratings)
- Blue with Red Stripe: Button Illumination

Navigator Clock Spring Wire Colors/Uses:
- Royal Blue: Cruise On only
- Solid Brown: Radio button feed - connect to light blue/red stripe wire coming out of rear radio plug.
- Black: Remaining cruise buttons (see above)
- Large Black with pink stripe (not through clock spring): see above
- Blue with black stripe: Remaining cruise buttons
- Blue with Red stripe: Illumination
- White with Blue stripe: HVAC control

Unfortunately, I was in a hurry to reassemble the vehicle and didn't take pictures while doing the HVAC wiring. I wasn't intending to do it, but when I had the radio out to try to figure that out, I decided to just go ahead and do it.

To Connect HVAC Buttons:
- Remove radio from dash and disconnect.
- Remove main dash panel
- Remove headlight switch and disconnect
- Tip dash front panel up on top of main dash out of the way (don't have to disconnect everything then)
- Remove four screws holding HVAC unit.
- Pull HVAC unit out
- Locate Brown with Light Blue Stripe wire in the plugs. (it's located roughly in the middle of one of the plugs)
- Run a short jumper wire between the clock spring and the HVAC unit. I found it was pretty easy with the dash off- I put my hand in roughly where the 4x4 module would be and pulled it up by the TBC plug.
- Strip back some of the wire insulation and solder in the jumper wire.
- Connect the wire to the White/Blue Stripe wire for the clock spring.
- Reassemble everything

My radio is a replacement unit that appears to be from an Escape, and even though it's 6-disc, it seems to not allow for redundant controls and does not have the speed-sensitive volume feature. I have not had time to pull everything apart and look at it using TXSailor's new diagram yet though. If I can get it to work, I'll update here, but it may just have to be.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/a...1&d=1507729988

TO REINSTALL THE WHEEL AFTER THE PLUG WIRING IS DONE:

1. If your new clock spring is used and you don't know the position, turn it all the way one way until you can't turn it any more (don't force it). Then turn it all the way back the other way and count the number of times. It should be just about seven. Then turn it back half way, which would be "centered".

2. Push the new clock spring onto the steering column until it snaps, while making sure to note the position where it says "top" on the clock spring.

3. Feed the wiring up into the clips on the column and under the PATS module.

4. Screw the PATS module back into place.

5. Plug the plug into the vehicle plug.

6. Plug the airbag plug back into the vehicle plug.

7. Push the ignition sensor into the groove for it.

8. Grab the Navigator steering wheel and push it over the splines. I found with mine anyway that it's impossible to put it on slightly crooked, because there's a flat spot it that prevents you from doing this. Make sure to feed the plug wiring through the steering wheel hole.

9. Hand thread the steering wheel main bolt into the threads and tighten with the torx bit/rachet.

10. Connect the plugs for the steering wheel from the clock spring

11. Push the top column plastic trim back into the holes for the screw "sticks".

12. Re-install the column bottom plastic trim with the three screws (can be a little tricky) and the tilt column lever.

13. Re-install the ignition switch, making sure it goes back in the "run" position like it came out. It should slide right in with little effort. Then you can turn back to off and remove the key.

14. Push the main steering wheel connection plug to the upper left corner- this is the only place it will fit without interfering (pic from my '05's stock wheel):

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/a...1&d=1507729988

15. Re-connect the two airbag wires.

16. Set the airbag back into place.

17. Re-install the two airbag screws from the back side (I recommend the socket/extension without the rachet)

18. Re-install the small plastic screw cover caps.

19. Re-install lower dash access panel

20. Re-install Airbag fuse & fuse panel cover

21. Re-connect battery

22. Turn on parking lights to just see if the illumination works (test clock spring this way).

23. Start/test-drive vehicle to ensure that all controls work as they should.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/a...1&d=1507729988

It's worth mentioning that I've already consulted the Ford dealer on this and they have no access to any wiring diagrams for what the mystery wires could be. They also say that the Navigator and Excursion use different clock springs, and the Excursion one is Ex specific. Here's a pic of the '05's with the redundant controls...the plug shape is very different both from cruise only and the Navigator one.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/a...1&d=1507729988

And if you're curious, this is what a clock spring looks like inside. It's essentially a flat, coiled cable inside the plastic housing connected to thin copper connections inside the plastic molded ends.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/a...1&d=1507729988

On a side note, if your Ex doesn't ding when the key is in the ignition when the door is open and you'd like it to (or not like it to), it's a simple fix. First, pull the key toward you- if it dings then, it's a simple repair. If not, it's further into things. If it does ding though, on the outside of the ignition switch when it's out, there's a small hammer thing there. Mine was spaced out too far from the switch, so it would only work when I pulled back on the key. I bent it slightly and now it works perfectly. Make sure not to go to far or else it'll ding at you all the time.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/a...1&d=1507729988
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/a...1&d=1507729988

Lastly, I'd like to note that if you have your clock spring apart for some reason, they have like Vaseline on the ribbon/cable in there to make it slide easy. I wiped this off when I worked on the clock spring, but now reassembled, I didn't put any back on. The clock spring now squeaks in the cold when making some moves (not all, but sometimes). So I'll have to pull it apart yet again to add some Vaseline to that ribbon surface, but hopefully I shouldn't have to pull the whole clock spring to do that.

Jon

Great write up - it looks really good! Too bad someone decided to trash a perfectly good Navi.... That Navi console would make a nice addition to your Ex and set off that wheel as well if that is available.

Nice write up. It truly is a shame that so many good vehicles went to the bone yard in that stupid cash for clunkers program! That program is the exact opposite of "green".

Sunline - nice write-up and it looks great. I've been thinking about doing the same thing however my '02 EX wheel has the full controls (cruise, radio, and AC) so it looks externally just like the Navigator wheel but w/o the wood.

If I read your write-up correctly, the Navigator replacment requies you to:

1) use the Navigator clock spring
2) Cut off plugs and rewire

otherwise it just dis-assembly and re-assembly - correct?

TNX, D

Thanks guys! I agree, I hated and still hate that program with a passion, especially when such a nice vehicle like this was destroyed. According to the C4C spreadsheet online, they traded it for a 2010 Escape...

That's it in a nutshell. The Navigator clock spring isn't essential, it's just what I had since I bought the entire Nav column. You could use an Excursion one, but I think it would still require wiring unless further harness swapping is done behind the dash (sounds like a PIA). I didn't need anything else from the column, so buying the whole thing was kind of a waste. But I got it all for about the same price as a wheel that I almost bought, and then I would have had to go get a clock spring.

For yours having the controls already, the Nav wheel should be a direct fit plug-n-play replacement that you could have swapped in a few minutes. I could swap it into the '05 and plug it in if it weren't tan...

I also forgot to mention that for doing the swap I did from not having the controls, I've heard there's the possibility that the radio and fan controls will need wires run for it, or possibly just one of those. I haven't gotten to that point yet to know what's involved.

Jon

Awesome writeup!!! This should be stickied or put in the tech FAQ along with my seat swap info (although that never seems to happen around here - mods? admins? whats up with that?)

This gets asked alot! and this writeup is the first complete answer I've seen. kudos to you and sending you some REPS too!!!

I thought you could get a clock spring from and Ex with the steering wheel controls and it would plug right in. I'm just trying to recall this from about 3 years ago when I had my 02 EX. Something worth checking into? Or am I off my rocker?

I totally would have, but the dealer says they are different, and the plug from my '05 with the controls is different and wouldn't plug right in. So the clock spring doesn't really matter as long as it connects to the wheel end.

I suppose you could make it plug n play, but you'd have to pull out the main harness that the clockspring plugs into and many other things plug into it also...it looked up there with a flashlight and a mirror. I suspect it probably plugs into the fuse panel and to the PCM both.

Jon

nice write up

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick update, I spent a few hours in the garage this evening trying to get everything wired up with the clockspring, now that it's fixed. The cable part had broken off of the main connection part on the outer end of the spool, so the connector had to be opened up so the cable could be re-soldered. It's a tricky thing to do since everything is so delicate.

I've got everything figured out wiring wise except for the radio. I need to temporarily swap it with another vehicle to see if it's the radio or my wiring. The radio, even though it's a Ford unit, was replaced with a professionally refurbished unit by the previous owner. It originally had the AM/FM/CD/Cassette and now has the 6-disc. Thanks to some links found on here, I discovered that it was an Escape radio by the part number. I'm not sure if some Escapes have radio controls, or if that even matters.

I also can't, and haven't, been able to get the speed-sensitive volume working :(

I will get some pictures uploaded soon (plus a few more I took to make the steering wheel disassembly process more complete).

With the help of a ohm meter, I took ohm readings for each wire coming from the clock spring to see what did what. So I grounded the one wire on the meter, then put the other one each wire and hit all the buttons as I did it. The findings are as follows:

Vehicle Wire Colors/Uses:
- Royal Blue wire: Cruise On only
- Green with orange: Not Used
- Solid black: Remaining cruise buttons (more consistent, lower ohm ratings)
- Large Black with Pink stripe: Ignition sensor thing (don't know technical name)
- Blue with Black Stripe: Remaining cruise buttons (varying, large ohm ratings)
- Blue with Red Stripe: Button Illumination

Clock Spring Wire Colors/Uses:
- Royal Blue: Cruise On only
- Solid Brown: UNKNOWN AT THIS TIME- MAYBE RADIO?
- Black: Remaining cruise buttons (see above)
- Large Black with pink stripe (not through clock spring): see above
- Blue with black stripe: Remaining cruise buttons
- Blue with Red stripe: Illumination
- White with Blue stripe: HVAC control

Hooking it up as it is with this configuration, none of the controls on the right worked.

After consulting the Haynes Manual, it pointed me to the Brown/Blue Stripe wire coming out the back of the HVAC unit. So I pulled the dash out and un-bolted the unit. Tapped into the wire and sure enough, it works great! This wire is about in the middle of the plug on the right of the two.

I found a diagram somewhere that showed the breakdown of wire meanings of the radio plugs. The main power/speaker connection plug is in the Haynes manual, but not the second plug that seems to have stuff for phone disconnects, etc. I actually had the radio playing and functioning with that one unplugged. It was pointing to the light blue with red stripe wire in the lower corner being the wire to use, but it won't do a thing to me. And I know the buttons work because when I was trying to figure things out, I found that the radio buttons worked the HVAC...next was like temp +, volume up was fan -, volume down didn't work, and mode was temp -.

Unfortunately, the Haynes manual says nothing for the radio buttons...

I did try wrapping the wire around a needle and poking each of the wires in the harness there, and it didn't do anything for any of them, which is why I concluded it might be the radio.

Jon

Nice write-up! My Ex has the steering controls but I've been tossing around the idea of doing this in my 99 F250. Very very tempting... thanks for sharing this!!

Sunline - Nice write up. I have the pin outs for the Ford radio (both connectors) that is the "premium" 6CD player if you need it. PM me w/ an e-mial and I can send it to you. It's too detailed to post but there is a copy in my albums.

D

I just updated the original post with a few more disassembly pictures and info for radio/HVAC connections.

Jon

Great right up. I have to do this mod. so many mods so little time!

I did this mod using a 2001 Navigator wheel I got off flea-bay. It was a bolt on replacement (no wiring changes required) on my 2002 EX.

Really sets the interior off now.

D