I would like to start my first post here with a great big thank you to all of you, the information here has been invaluable to me.
I have a 2017 Expedition EL Limited with the heavy towing package (3.73 gears, trac-lok rear diff. 9.75" IRS rear, 8.8" IFS front). I bought it in late '18 with 72000 miles on it, and this is my first RWD vehicle, and my first with a clutch-based limited slip differential. It is my daily driver, and my only vehicle. I am now at 142000 on the clock, and am now all too familiar with sticky, binding clutches in the rear differential. In my opinion, it was a crime that Ford put clutches into a differential that literally needs to be entirely removed for service.
Literally for years I have mined the internet, and these forums, for information on the differentials, parts, and other details to do two things - replace the front differential with a TrueTrac, which it appears is relatively straightforward - and replace the LSD in the rear with a factory E-Locker and fully integrate it just like a 2014 F-150 which my research tells me is very similar. I am sure several people are chuckling right now, as it feels like a major undertaking at this point.
Last weekend, with parts in hand, my dad and I got it onto a portable lift, and replaced the rear diff with brand-new bearings and seals, and the factory e-locker unit. I re-used the pinion and ring gears, however. One cringe moment of mine was to find that the casting of my friend's 2013 F-150 FX4 has a nice bulge/pad to accommodate the electrical fitting, which I also had in hand. However, the independent suspension rear differential housing differs greatly from the fixed axle version, and to say the least the wiring didn't get done the way I wanted it to be. But, I needed to sew it back up so that it was drivable on Monday, so we made do with depinning the connector, making a small hole in the otherwise correct location in the casting, reattaching the connector, and spooging it full of RTV Silicone to seal it up. Full honesty, I was ready to cut the wire and treat it like a very expensive open differential at that point. Backlash on tear-down was .018", and we tightened it to .015", but I didn't dare take it all the way to the .006-.010" spec I found for the diff. It doesn't whine, at least not that I can hear, so I'll consider myself overjoyed at the mechanical end of things, and philosophically somewhat "ok" with how we got the wires routed out of the housing. If I'd have had a spare housing I was working on instead of the "one and only", I could have gotten much fancier and taken far more time at it. Perhaps someday, but that thing is a man-killer to get in and out, and I would welcome never ever having to do that again.
Today I finished tearing the dashboard half apart and routing an additional wire from the new 4x4 MSS rotary switch to the new TCCM. The Expedition TCCM supports the 2TOD transfer case but not the E-Locker, so I found the part numbers for the TCCM and the rotary MSS switch with 2TOD and e-locker function from the 2014 F-150 and bought them. I got the wiring diagrams from this forum and started buying a few of Ford's repair splices to examine. I found the connectors and male and female pins on Digi-Key, and ordered a small batch of them to play with. I also got a crimper from Amazon to handle those DuPont pins, and I am already wishing I had a nicer one. The Expedition lacks the wiring for the E-Locker, so it is missing the signal wire (WH-GN) going from pin 5 on the MSS to pin 15 on connector A on the TCCM. From what I can tell, the other 4 wires go out to the engine bay, and back in the other side. Needless to say, I wasn't doing THAT. I ordered the appropriate (so I thought) wire in the proper color and all, and began to crimp and fish it in. What I discovered was that although the repair splices are supplied with 18 awg wire, 18 awg wires do not fit those connectors unless the crimps are literally PERFECT, and that factory signal wire from MSS to TCCM is actually 20 awg. That made my life hell this weekend, but I did get it in there across the dash, following another unrelated harness. It's not perfect, but IMHO far worse jobs have been done. I have verified via some DTC's and module self-tests that the TCCM does indeed see the "signal" from the MSS (it's just a normally closed switch), and the driver circuit spat out enough juice to light up a voltage tester briefly during the self-test if the switch is pulled out to the lock position. If I had the wiring from the TCCM to diff done, it might actually lock it. However, I still have to find out what female pin I have to order for connector B, pin 9 on the TCCM side to go to the diff.
Which, if you've gotten this far, brings me to the problem I ran into tonight - the IPC programming. I looked at the spreadsheets for the 2014 F-150, which this seems very similar to in so many other respects and seems to have great data. However, mine makes ZERO sense as compared to that data, and nothing I've tried so far allows the E-Locker to show on the IPC. Also, every time I enter any odd number into the spot where I believe I need a "5", it refuses to write the block and complains of a checksum error. No value I've attempted in that position so far seems to change anything I can find.
This is the information from Forscan on my IPC module:
IPC - Instrument Panel Control Module
Bus: HSCAN
Part Number: GL1T-10849-EF
Calibration Level: GL1T-10849-EG
Strategy: GL1T-14C026-EF
Calibration: GL1T-14C088-EF
Odometer: 229046.6 km
This is the relevant data I see in the IPC as-built:
720-01-01: 2423 1040 20E0
720-01-02: 240B 1069
According to the spreadsheet, the "0" at the end of "1040" would correspond with "2WD, None of the options below", when in reality based on the description mine looks more like I would expect a "4" to be in that position (it has the offroad screen from the factory, with the power distribution and vehicle angle screens). My goal is just to change enough to get the E-Locker status to be acknowledged and reflected in the IPC, since there is no other status light/etc on the MSS rotary switch itself.
Can anyone provide assistance with this? I am more than happy to post pictures and provide more details including part numbers/etc if anyone else is suicidal enough to want to attempt this install.
Thank you all,
I have a 2017 Expedition EL Limited with the heavy towing package (3.73 gears, trac-lok rear diff. 9.75" IRS rear, 8.8" IFS front). I bought it in late '18 with 72000 miles on it, and this is my first RWD vehicle, and my first with a clutch-based limited slip differential. It is my daily driver, and my only vehicle. I am now at 142000 on the clock, and am now all too familiar with sticky, binding clutches in the rear differential. In my opinion, it was a crime that Ford put clutches into a differential that literally needs to be entirely removed for service.
Literally for years I have mined the internet, and these forums, for information on the differentials, parts, and other details to do two things - replace the front differential with a TrueTrac, which it appears is relatively straightforward - and replace the LSD in the rear with a factory E-Locker and fully integrate it just like a 2014 F-150 which my research tells me is very similar. I am sure several people are chuckling right now, as it feels like a major undertaking at this point.
Last weekend, with parts in hand, my dad and I got it onto a portable lift, and replaced the rear diff with brand-new bearings and seals, and the factory e-locker unit. I re-used the pinion and ring gears, however. One cringe moment of mine was to find that the casting of my friend's 2013 F-150 FX4 has a nice bulge/pad to accommodate the electrical fitting, which I also had in hand. However, the independent suspension rear differential housing differs greatly from the fixed axle version, and to say the least the wiring didn't get done the way I wanted it to be. But, I needed to sew it back up so that it was drivable on Monday, so we made do with depinning the connector, making a small hole in the otherwise correct location in the casting, reattaching the connector, and spooging it full of RTV Silicone to seal it up. Full honesty, I was ready to cut the wire and treat it like a very expensive open differential at that point. Backlash on tear-down was .018", and we tightened it to .015", but I didn't dare take it all the way to the .006-.010" spec I found for the diff. It doesn't whine, at least not that I can hear, so I'll consider myself overjoyed at the mechanical end of things, and philosophically somewhat "ok" with how we got the wires routed out of the housing. If I'd have had a spare housing I was working on instead of the "one and only", I could have gotten much fancier and taken far more time at it. Perhaps someday, but that thing is a man-killer to get in and out, and I would welcome never ever having to do that again.
Today I finished tearing the dashboard half apart and routing an additional wire from the new 4x4 MSS rotary switch to the new TCCM. The Expedition TCCM supports the 2TOD transfer case but not the E-Locker, so I found the part numbers for the TCCM and the rotary MSS switch with 2TOD and e-locker function from the 2014 F-150 and bought them. I got the wiring diagrams from this forum and started buying a few of Ford's repair splices to examine. I found the connectors and male and female pins on Digi-Key, and ordered a small batch of them to play with. I also got a crimper from Amazon to handle those DuPont pins, and I am already wishing I had a nicer one. The Expedition lacks the wiring for the E-Locker, so it is missing the signal wire (WH-GN) going from pin 5 on the MSS to pin 15 on connector A on the TCCM. From what I can tell, the other 4 wires go out to the engine bay, and back in the other side. Needless to say, I wasn't doing THAT. I ordered the appropriate (so I thought) wire in the proper color and all, and began to crimp and fish it in. What I discovered was that although the repair splices are supplied with 18 awg wire, 18 awg wires do not fit those connectors unless the crimps are literally PERFECT, and that factory signal wire from MSS to TCCM is actually 20 awg. That made my life hell this weekend, but I did get it in there across the dash, following another unrelated harness. It's not perfect, but IMHO far worse jobs have been done. I have verified via some DTC's and module self-tests that the TCCM does indeed see the "signal" from the MSS (it's just a normally closed switch), and the driver circuit spat out enough juice to light up a voltage tester briefly during the self-test if the switch is pulled out to the lock position. If I had the wiring from the TCCM to diff done, it might actually lock it. However, I still have to find out what female pin I have to order for connector B, pin 9 on the TCCM side to go to the diff.
Which, if you've gotten this far, brings me to the problem I ran into tonight - the IPC programming. I looked at the spreadsheets for the 2014 F-150, which this seems very similar to in so many other respects and seems to have great data. However, mine makes ZERO sense as compared to that data, and nothing I've tried so far allows the E-Locker to show on the IPC. Also, every time I enter any odd number into the spot where I believe I need a "5", it refuses to write the block and complains of a checksum error. No value I've attempted in that position so far seems to change anything I can find.
This is the information from Forscan on my IPC module:
IPC - Instrument Panel Control Module
Bus: HSCAN
Part Number: GL1T-10849-EF
Calibration Level: GL1T-10849-EG
Strategy: GL1T-14C026-EF
Calibration: GL1T-14C088-EF
Odometer: 229046.6 km
This is the relevant data I see in the IPC as-built:
720-01-01: 2423 1040 20E0
720-01-02: 240B 1069
According to the spreadsheet, the "0" at the end of "1040" would correspond with "2WD, None of the options below", when in reality based on the description mine looks more like I would expect a "4" to be in that position (it has the offroad screen from the factory, with the power distribution and vehicle angle screens). My goal is just to change enough to get the E-Locker status to be acknowledged and reflected in the IPC, since there is no other status light/etc on the MSS rotary switch itself.
Can anyone provide assistance with this? I am more than happy to post pictures and provide more details including part numbers/etc if anyone else is suicidal enough to want to attempt this install.
Thank you all,