Hi Everyone, Ever since I saw people swapping the Navigator steering wheels into Excursions, I was really wanting to do it. Well I've been looking for quite a while (a few months) for the right wheel because they are all in such bad shape, at least the leather is anyway. Well, this past week I finally found a nice one. From a documented 05/01 build '01 Navigator that was turned in for Cash for Clunkers with 84,360 on the clock. From the pictures of it, it's a real shame someone turned it in like that, it was very clean, no rust, etc. But the wheel was in great shape and I saved it at least... It arrived yesterday and I'm in the process of swapping it in. Since my Excursion only has the cruise control buttons (even though the radio controls were optional in '02), I got the entire column with hopes of just swapping those to make it work, and then I'd just have to change the ignition and PATS. I do have two keys with the Nav column, but I want to keep my ignition so the door locks all work too. I successfully got my airbag out without blowing it up and I'm ready to start to disassemble things. Then I started comparing all the plugs. They all should match right up and work correctly with the exception of one. This one plug comes down the length of the column inside a tube. Kind of like a shrink tube, but not shrunk. At the end of it, there are actually two plugs coming out, one has just two wires and then this one has seven wires into it. The small plug is the same on the Excursion but this larger one is a completely different size/shape/color and has only six wires. None of the wire colors are the same between columns, of course. So my question is, does anyone have any pictures, wiring diagrams, or personal experience that would indicate what the wires are for? I'll need to splice it all in, and right now it doesn't look like they'd be easy to trace. Any help would be appreciated as I'd really like to get this done this weekend. Thanks! Jon

 

Did you check this thread? It might help.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/9...heel-swap.html

I put a navi wheel in my X, but it was almost plug and play since I already had all the wheel controls. Here: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/9...excursion.html

 

Hi Neil,

Thanks for the response! Yes, I did read through that thread, and the pictures on page 3 have helped a lot with determining what should be for the cruise side. The problem now is the radio/fan stuff. I haven't seen anywhere if there's a definitive answer on if the radio wires already go to the cruise only wheels. I heard about running a wire for the EATC, but nothing is said about the radio.

I got it all hooked up today and it looks wonderful. Connected everything back up and started it. The airbag light is flashing now and none of the buttons work (not even the illumination). I had a problem with the clock spring when I took it off the Navigator column in that the wire/cable came out of the outer connection. I tried to reinstall it, but I don't think it connected. I just pushed it into the connector because it didn't want to open up without breaking it. I re-spooled the clock spring and centered it, so it should have been good. When I had the vehicle running, I did go to back it out of the garage, and when I got the wheel turned all of about a half a turn to the left, it made some horrible noises. So I suspect I'll be searching for a new clock spring now.

The way I have it soldered up now is all the colors matched except for two from the non-cruise plug and three from the Navigator harness, as I expected this extra wire at the moment. Since the column was from a 2001 Navigator and my Ex is a 2002, I suspected the colors might be the same and it seems like they all go to the same place on both, but I'll never know until I can find a new clock spring.

So for everyone else watching, if you happen to know which wires should be for the radio and which should be for the EATC, I'd appreciate any advice you can give. I have the 6-disc CD AM/FM Stereo and the digital EATC. My Ex should have originally came with the single CD stereo originally, but the previous owner changed it out.

Jon

 

Hey guys, I got a question for you all...

Did your NON-radio controlled airbag, fit into the radio controlled steering wheel?

Everyone says they are different, but I dont know WHAT is different?

 

Mine fit just fine. But right now I'm waiting on the salvage yard I bought it from to send me a new clockspring. I'll still have to do some wiring, bu the one they had on there was broken. That's the bad part about buying a pulled column, if the wheel isn't locked and turns around too much, it breaks the clockspring ribbon. So right now I'm just running with my old clockspring so that I have the airbag, but the cruise and radio/fan buttons don't work or light up.

Now I'll admit there was a light issue when I tried to fit the Navigator clockspring where the plug for the wheel controls didn't want to fit in real well with the airbag. I think it was just where I had it at though, because it wasn't off by much. I'm curious to know though if there are different airbag part numbers, because the plug in connections are the same.

 

I have got to try this. did you take pictures?

 

The Nav wheel? I'll tell you, it sure looks great. I am very glad I did it, but I am disappointed that I don't have the controls working yet. Believe it or not, I think I subconsciously use the lights on the buttons to tell me how straight the wheel is, and driving at night has been a little bit of an adjustment the past couple weeks!

I do have a ton of pictures. I'll try to get them up this weekend at some point. I took pictures of the entire install just like it would be completed and then found out that the clock spring was bad. Took it out for a test drive and the airbag light was flashing. So I had to pull the wheel yet again and I put my old clock spring back in just so I could safely drive it. The good part is, as long as you have the wheel straight when you park the vehicle to do the swap, you can't get the wheel in the teeth just to one side because of some flat spots in it, so it's pretty foolproof. I've done many step by step picture tutorials on the Sunline RV forum before, and I took pictures to do the same here, because it is a subject that I couldn't find that anyone had it on already. My dad and I attempted to repair the clock spring, but we haven't tried it yet since the salvage yard claims to be sending another one my way. We'll see. In my case, the ribbon inside pulled out of the outside connection contact, so after scraping the ribbon down to the copper and soldering it back to the posts, it should be good, but anything is possible. Since it does control the airbag harness too (the clock spring really has two harnesses going through it), I really would rather trust a new one. But I'll see if I get a new one first, plus the cold weather hasn't had me too motivated to go out and pull it apart again...

Oh yeah, and wherever it said on FTE here that you may be able to rock the wheel back and forth to pull it off, nope, not happening. The first time and even the subsequent times after it had just been installed, there was no rocking to get it off... Had to use a steering wheel puller, but it wasn't hard as long as the tool was around.

I'm still looking for any kind of wiring diagrams or information that anyone has on how to wire this up. I went to the dealer about another issue and asked while I was there, but their descriptions only tell the number of pins and the vehicle that it fits on. The Haynes manual only shows limited details, but I have managed to figure out all but two of the new harness wires and one of the old harness wires. Fortunately, a lot of the stuff seems to be the same color and gauge wire, so I'm crossing my fingers that it'll work.

Best of all, I absolutely love that I can palm the wheel on the wood now. I never did before because I always feared that I would wear through the color on the leather (which seems more like rubber to me anyway?). My original wheel, with 120k, only started showing a little wear on the hump of the southeast sewing seam and just very mildly beginning on the northwest seam of it.

So my best advice to everyone out there, if you're looking for a Nav wheel, don't bother with the entire column. Just get the wheel. The dealer has confirmed that the Ex clock spring is for the Ex only, so the Nav one may not work. I haven't been able to look at an Ex with the redundant controls to see what the clock spring plug looks like though, since the plug is the only thing preventing it from working.

However, it's a good start to search for Nav columns, and then ask the place if they have the wheel available. Even though I paid almost exactly an average of what the wheels only are selling for on eBay, the column was listed for much less and he would include the wheel for $40. So maybe there are some nice $40 wheels out there? Also, make sure to ask for close up pictures of the wheel, because some of them are in bad shape. I remember looking at one with like 64k on it that looked amazing in the pictures, but when he took close ups, it really wasn't so nice after all.

Jon

 

Thank you!

Thats what I wanted to know. I know that they are different for some reason, but Im not putting mine into an airbag application, so if the airbag doesnt work, it doesnt matter haha

 

Sorry for the long delay, I haven't completely forgotten, just have had a lot going on. I still haven't had a chance to change out the clock springs again either...

 

Did you get everything working?

 

Yes and no. I forgot about this thread. I made a thread for the whole conversion.

Long story short, we repaired the Navigator clock spring and used it. It has all worked great since except the radio buttons. I think that's because the radio I have in there is a replacement.

Just last Friday, I put the radio from the rollover in there, which is a factory Excursion six disk. I briefly connected the wire I had run to the plug before, and it didn't work. I must have the wrong wire now.

I'm on my phone right now, so I can't easily search to find that thread. If you can't find it, let me know and I'll find it.

Jon

 

Well in a few days I am going to have to figure it out I just bought a Navi wheel off of ebay this morning. I'll let you know how it goes. eBay - New & used electronics, cars, apparel, collectibles, sporting goods & more at low prices

 

Nice score! That wheel looks in great shape too!

Here's the link:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...xs-how-to.html

Jon

 

Thanks Jon, I am starting this weekend if the wheel gets here by friday.