You all have a great forum here with lots of useful information. After an inspection and about 30 hours of reading here and at a few other sites, I recently purchased a 2001 Excursion limited with the 7.3 diesel. It has a 190K miles and was previously owned by a company that conducts crash scene investigations. It has some mods, which I am still trying to track down including a superchips chip (not sure of the type or even where to look), a stainless exhaust, and an air leveler. I believe the superchip probably caused the transmission to go at 180K miles as the truck has much more take-off than my parent's 2001 stock 7.3 Ex. Where can I look to locate the chip?



First "project" was finding a third row seat. Our Ex will largely be used to haul kids and from time to time launch a 10,000 lb. boat. The truck actually came with a custom made slider from bedslide that fits into the third row seat "clips". Thanks to posts here I was able to confirm an expedition seat would fit and purchased an unused 3rd row from a 2001 Eddie Bauer expedition on craigslist for $20. It has a different stitch pattern, but will be covered in car seats so I don't care.

Second "project" was replacing the steering wheel. Completed this morning thanks to all the how to threads here. Hardest part was finding the correct steering wheel puller.

Old wheel



Air bag removed- slightly different than some of the pictures I had seen here on the Navigator wheel swaps.



New wheel, not an exact match, but for $40, I couldn't go wrong. I had purchased a $275 replacement to match the medium parchment leather but they had no wheel frames in stock. So I got an off the shelf F-150 wheel from Carid in "tan" leather. The wheel leather actually matches the dash but is slightly off on the airbag. It looks closer in person than in the picture.



Next project is a worn out driver's seat bottom. I got a replacement from the seat store per recommendations here. Then, on to removing the light bar.

 

Let me make sure I read that right, u got tht steering wheel for $40? If so, where? Nice looking Ex and Welcome!!!

 

Hey, welcome to FTE!

Brownie points for posting pics right away!

First, what makes you think the Ex has been chipped?

Second, if it has been chipped, the chip would be installed on the PCM, located on the driver-side kick panel, down by the E-brake.

Stewart

 

Thanks for the welcome. Actually it was $50 but I had a credit due to my prior order. Here is the wheel- the picture on their website does not match the description. The description (English burl/tan) is consistent with the install pics above. The "english burl" is also slightly darker than the OEM paneling but since I have no wood on the dash, unless you were looking and intentionally comparing the two you would never notice.

REMIN - Steering Wheel (English Burl with Tan Leather) - 2001 Ford F-150 Steering Wheel - Remin 009019

 

Thanks I will look there. The seller said it had a superchips chip. After test driving it and then taking my parent's 7.3 for a test drive I could definately feel a difference in the power range and acceleration. This is my first diesel vehicle and I'm not really familiar with tuners/chips etc. My main concern is that I do not blow out the transmission again. The replacement transmission has a lifetime transferable warranty but I am sure that doesn't cover labor. If the transmission wasn't upgraded to deal with the chip, I will probably go back to stock as it will largely be a family truckster/third vehicle. Then again, it seems Ford's transmissions always seem to go out around that time. I just replaced my 2004 F-150's transmission at 150K miles. I also had a 1992 Explorer's transmission fail at 140K miles (my first car).

 

I bought my 7.3 EX not to long ago and it runs like a champ (after a couple minor repairs).

When I bought mine I had to have an updated air box put in. Make sure your have an updated one or you will be sucking dust in and that can cause long term damage!

Welcome to the forums!

 

Nice truck. You can continue to use the chip with the stock tranny, plenty of guys here doing the same. I would however, add at the very least a pyrometer to measure your exhaust temps. If you want to add a coupe more, most owners running a chip will have a pyro, trans, and boost gauge set up.

Thanks for the steering wheel find, reps sent .

 

Went for a 100 mile roundtrip in the Ex. today and was glad that the cruise control worked after the steering wheel swap. Worked on the seat bottom replacement this afternoon- it is definately a bigger project than the explorer and F-150 videos pictured on the seat shop's website. I thought the biggest project would be getting the seat out but that was easy. Disassembling the seat into four pieces took about another hour then I realized the foam was probably also shot. Two of the three rods that hold the hog rings had pulled out of the foam and this is probably why the seat was so worn out- it was just sliding around. Given the labor I have already invested and the hog ring rod issue, I just ordered a new foam and now have to wait a few days to put everything back together.

I also took the slider out, stored it, and installed the third row seat today. The slider is kind of neat but has a few issues. First, it doesn't work with the spare inside the vehicle. Second, it probably weighs 200 lbs. and without a heavy load on top, it bounces slightly when going over bumps and speed bumps creating a loud crashing metal sound. Below are pictures of the slider with the 3rd row seat sitting on top.

 

I guess they sold out of those wood/tan steering wheels pretty quick after I posted here. I bought one for my dad's Ex. last Sunday and got an email Tuesday saying they were no longer in stock. Sorry if anyone didn't get to take advantage of that deal, hopefully some of you did.

I got the seat shop seat leather installed. Below are some pics.

Seat before:



Old foam with seat heater.



New foam in comparison to the old foam.



New cover installed. Seat shop recommends scrubbing the old leather with scrubbing bubbles to remove the shine and ensure a perfect color match. I will probably clean the top with leather cleaner and then just condition the lower part of the seat every so often.





I wanted to take more pictures of the install process but it basically involves two hands the entire time. This is probably old hat for alot of people, but for anyone not familiar with the process, it is slightly different than the videos for the F-150 and Explorer on the seat shop's website. Detailed instructions are below.

First, you unbolt the seat from the truck with 3 torx bolts and a 18mm wrench. It is helpful to raise the seat all the way up to get access to the bolts and you will need to move the seat forward and back to reach all the bolts. I had to use a broken piece of lacrosse stick on my socket wrench in order to get enough leverage to free up all four of the bolts.

Second, once unbolted, you tilt the seat back and disengage two of the grey power quick connect plugs under the seat.

Third, you remove the seat from the vehicle. Then remove the seat base (slider and feat) by removing four bolts and disconnecting some other quick connects.

Fourth, remove the plastic side plate. The 4 way seat control unscrews, the lumber **** pops off, and there are a few other screws that you need to take off as well.

Fifth, once the lumbar and seat belt sensor are undone and the side plate was removed, you unbolt the hinge at the center side of the seat. There are 2 bolts.

Sixth, you slide the seat top away from the hinge and it pops out of the plastic fitting housing a short rod hinge on the other side. After you feed the lumbar support and seat belt sensor through the hole in the seat leather, you have 4 pieces- (1) the legs and slide mechanism; (2) the seat pan (sharp as a knife- ask me how I know); (3) the plastic side plate; and (4) the seat back & armrest.

Seventh, now that the seat pan is isolated, you remove the black plastic sleeves from underneath that hold the leather on. Then you roll back the leather from underneath, getting access to the foam and hog rings.

Eighth, cut the hog rings with a fairly heavy duty set of snips and pull out all broken pieces of metal. If you are going with new foam, you can just remove the foam and leather from the seat pan. If you are going with new foam, you need to reinstall the seat heater. I used spray adhesive.

Ninth, make sure the foam is lined up on the seat pan. Take the $6.99 hog ring pliers that you buy with the seat cover, clamp each ring slightly , get them started through the webbing material holding the plastic strips on the leather, and then push down HARD making sure the plastic piece attached to the leather is touching the plastic hog ring holder bar embedded in the foam. CLAMP - HARD. Start installing the hog rings at the front middle. Then work your way around making sure to stretch the leather sideways. (I forgot to do that and may have gotten a few wrinkles in the middle as a result).

Tenth, once all the hog rings are installed, slide the lumbar wire and seat belt sensor back through the top hole in the leather. Cover the side with the hinge with a rag so you don't scuff or get grease on the new leather. Slide the rod on the seat top back onto the plastic fitting.

Eleventh, roll the leather over the front corners while pushing the foam in. Repeat on other side and in the back, making sure to stretch the leather as much as possible. Then flip over to the back and slide the plastic pieces on the razor sharp catch areas.

Twelfth, reassemble the seat pieces. Reverse steps 11-1.

In a few weeks, I'll try to tackle the light bar.