My current Expedition stock wheel had taken a severe toll from the southern sun. So- instead of buying the same, boring Vinyl wheel, I ordered a Navigator wheel from eBay. I also ordered a clockspring (which I did not need because I did not add the EATC or MACH audio controls!) I'll get right into the tutorial and cut the introduction:
The tools required for this swap are as follows:
Soldering Iron/Solder
Electrical Tape
Multimeter (only need continuity/resistance, so a harbor freight meter will work fine)
Navigator Wheel
Navigator Clockspring (ONLY REQUIRED IF YOU WISH TO ADD EATC AND MACH CONTROLS)
Torx t50 socket
Threadlocker
2 tooth puller or any way to pull the wheel
8mm socket
wire strippers/snippers
2 zip ties
a flat head (to remove the bolt covers)
***AS ALWAYS WHEN HANDLING THE ELECTRICAL SYSTEM OF YOUR CAR ALWAYS DISCONNECT THE BATTERY, ESPECIALLY WHEN WORKING WITH THE AIRBAG YOU MUST WAIT 30 MINUTES TO WORK ON THE CAR***
1) Disconnect the battery, and wait 30 minutes until you work on the car.
2) Remove the bolt covers from the side of the steering wheel (circles on the trim of the steering wheels)
3)Remove the airbag by unbolting the two 8mm bolts you just uncovered.
**BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN HANDLING AN AIRBAG MAKE SURE YOU PLACE IT FACING UP SO IT DOES NOT BECOME A PROJECTILE IN THE CASE OF A MISFIRING**
**ALSO BE CAREFUL WITH THE WIRING OF THE AIRBAG**
4) Disconnect the two leads to the airbag. the red clip requires a screwdriver to remove.
5) Set the airbag aside for now in a safe place
6) Remove the torx t-50 bolt from the center of the steering wheel.
7) Pull the steering wheel off using your desired method.
Now, this is where the two installations differentiate.
If you have an XLT model and only want cruise control, which is about 4x easier and can be completed in only 1 hour, use this route.
1) Cut the old steering wheel connector that plugged into the clockspring (it is the flat connector), leaving about 5 inches of leads for soldering and fitment.
2) Cut the connector off of the navigator wheel, leaving as much length as you would like.
3) Peel back some of the electrical tape from the navigator wheel's wiring loom. Just enough to solder.
4) Most of the wires color match, with one exception: the horn wire on a 2002 Expedition is an orange/dark green wire. The horn wire on a navigator is BLACK. To make things even more confusing, the ground wire on the navigator is also black.
5) Probe for continuity between the black wire's pin on the red connector of the wheel between the two black wires in the loom. The one that has continuity to the horn wire should be soldered to the orange/dark green wire from your expedition.
6) Solder the rest of the wires that color match (there are two blue and red wires from the navigator, solder those two together with the wire from the expedition.
7) tape up your connections, and zip tie the wire loom to the top of the metal frame of the wheel.
8) Install the wheel, which is the reversal of the removal, except
**YOU MUST ADD LOCKTITE TO THE BOLT OF THE STEERING WHEEL AND TORQUE THE BOLT DO NOT STRIP THE THREADS**
Now, for all of you King Ranch and Lariat who want EATC and MACH controls:
You must find two donor pins to mount into the connectors for the respective units. (I recommend getting more than one, as they are prone to breaking.)
i.e. A pin from the EATC electrical connector from a donor can be mounted into your existing pigtail by inserting the pin from the back.
Also, your clockspring must be from a navigator from around the same model year, so 2000-2002 for my case.
Lets get to it!
1) Remove the trim pieces around the steering column. (I am not going to go into depth with this one, as there are guides available elsewhere).
2) Verify that the colors of the navigator clockspring match the colors of your current clockspring before you cut the wires.
3) Cut wires of your OEM clockspring, leaving as much room as you can for soldering
4) Color match all of the wires, but leave the Brown wire, as well as the Blue/White wire.
5) Solder a wire to the brown wire long enough to run through the dash into the radio cavity. Solder the pin from the donor vehicle, and insert the pin through the back of connector number 261. The pin to be added is called pin 14, which will be labeled on the connector itself.
6) Run the white/blue wire to the pin number 8 of the EATC connector
7) Mount the new clockspring
8) Install the wheel, which is the reversal of the removal, except
**YOU MUST ADD LOCKTITE TO THE BOLT OF THE STEERING WHEEL AND TORQUE THE BOLT DO NOT STRIP THE THREADS**
Bask in your glorious Wooden wheel.
I will somehow post pictures of how it looks in the expedition. This is applicable to F-150s as well happy cruising!
The tools required for this swap are as follows:
Soldering Iron/Solder
Electrical Tape
Multimeter (only need continuity/resistance, so a harbor freight meter will work fine)
Navigator Wheel
Navigator Clockspring (ONLY REQUIRED IF YOU WISH TO ADD EATC AND MACH CONTROLS)
Torx t50 socket
Threadlocker
2 tooth puller or any way to pull the wheel
8mm socket
wire strippers/snippers
2 zip ties
a flat head (to remove the bolt covers)
***AS ALWAYS WHEN HANDLING THE ELECTRICAL SYSTEM OF YOUR CAR ALWAYS DISCONNECT THE BATTERY, ESPECIALLY WHEN WORKING WITH THE AIRBAG YOU MUST WAIT 30 MINUTES TO WORK ON THE CAR***
1) Disconnect the battery, and wait 30 minutes until you work on the car.
2) Remove the bolt covers from the side of the steering wheel (circles on the trim of the steering wheels)
3)Remove the airbag by unbolting the two 8mm bolts you just uncovered.
**BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN HANDLING AN AIRBAG MAKE SURE YOU PLACE IT FACING UP SO IT DOES NOT BECOME A PROJECTILE IN THE CASE OF A MISFIRING**
**ALSO BE CAREFUL WITH THE WIRING OF THE AIRBAG**
4) Disconnect the two leads to the airbag. the red clip requires a screwdriver to remove.
5) Set the airbag aside for now in a safe place
6) Remove the torx t-50 bolt from the center of the steering wheel.
7) Pull the steering wheel off using your desired method.
Now, this is where the two installations differentiate.
If you have an XLT model and only want cruise control, which is about 4x easier and can be completed in only 1 hour, use this route.
1) Cut the old steering wheel connector that plugged into the clockspring (it is the flat connector), leaving about 5 inches of leads for soldering and fitment.
2) Cut the connector off of the navigator wheel, leaving as much length as you would like.
3) Peel back some of the electrical tape from the navigator wheel's wiring loom. Just enough to solder.
4) Most of the wires color match, with one exception: the horn wire on a 2002 Expedition is an orange/dark green wire. The horn wire on a navigator is BLACK. To make things even more confusing, the ground wire on the navigator is also black.
5) Probe for continuity between the black wire's pin on the red connector of the wheel between the two black wires in the loom. The one that has continuity to the horn wire should be soldered to the orange/dark green wire from your expedition.
6) Solder the rest of the wires that color match (there are two blue and red wires from the navigator, solder those two together with the wire from the expedition.
7) tape up your connections, and zip tie the wire loom to the top of the metal frame of the wheel.
8) Install the wheel, which is the reversal of the removal, except
**YOU MUST ADD LOCKTITE TO THE BOLT OF THE STEERING WHEEL AND TORQUE THE BOLT DO NOT STRIP THE THREADS**
Now, for all of you King Ranch and Lariat who want EATC and MACH controls:
You must find two donor pins to mount into the connectors for the respective units. (I recommend getting more than one, as they are prone to breaking.)
i.e. A pin from the EATC electrical connector from a donor can be mounted into your existing pigtail by inserting the pin from the back.
Also, your clockspring must be from a navigator from around the same model year, so 2000-2002 for my case.
Lets get to it!
1) Remove the trim pieces around the steering column. (I am not going to go into depth with this one, as there are guides available elsewhere).
2) Verify that the colors of the navigator clockspring match the colors of your current clockspring before you cut the wires.
3) Cut wires of your OEM clockspring, leaving as much room as you can for soldering
4) Color match all of the wires, but leave the Brown wire, as well as the Blue/White wire.
5) Solder a wire to the brown wire long enough to run through the dash into the radio cavity. Solder the pin from the donor vehicle, and insert the pin through the back of connector number 261. The pin to be added is called pin 14, which will be labeled on the connector itself.
6) Run the white/blue wire to the pin number 8 of the EATC connector
7) Mount the new clockspring
8) Install the wheel, which is the reversal of the removal, except
**YOU MUST ADD LOCKTITE TO THE BOLT OF THE STEERING WHEEL AND TORQUE THE BOLT DO NOT STRIP THE THREADS**
Bask in your glorious Wooden wheel.
I will somehow post pictures of how it looks in the expedition. This is applicable to F-150s as well happy cruising!
