Mustang Steering Wheel Conversion

[BonesDT]

The Explorer's airbag is slightly too wide to clear the Mustang's cruise control switches, which are situated narrower than the Ex's. I'm in the market for a Mustang air bag to have it work perfectly, until then, you just have to push really hard to sound the horn.

As far as wiring up the air bag, I'm leaving mine disabled permanently, but it shouldn't be too complicated to splice the connectors. However, keep in mind air bags are designed to explode at specific timing, so an air bag that is meant for a Mustang seating position may be dangerous in an Explorer.

 

[Devan]

You know rather then going and doing all that you could have just taken a grinder or cut off wheel and turned the splined shaft into a DD shaft, prolly would've been better off doing that on account of your steering wheel being slightly crooked which could be attributed to a slight rotational difference in the steering shafts. If you did use a grinder or cut off wheel, the wheel would probably be nice and straight. And you could even grind it so that you can set yourself up with a little left and right rotational play on the steering wheel so that if it is off you can just loosen the steering wheel bolt and make a slight adjustment and then tighten the bolt down hard (Make sure to use some loctite once you finally have it in position). Plus based on the pictures and what you said it seems like the explorer shaft is beefier and better quality not to mention its the right one for that column. Also based on your pictures I probably would have been able to adapt the explorer clock-spring to the stang wheel and retain proper horn, cruise control, and air bag functionality even if I had to cut into the steering wheel frame. As far as the air bag goes I dont imagine their would be to much of a difference in the timing of detonation for the RCMs in both vehicles. I have an 01 cobra and an 01 BoostedXPLR and the RCMS are almost the same. And they both operate off a longitudinal sensor inside the RCM and thats the only sensor controlling the air bags unless your explorer is equipped with side air bags then it may have more. However the bags themselves might be slightly different but I dont think it would be much. And if you really are concerned about the air bag just swap the inflators if theyll interchange that is they might not, carefully drill the rivets holding the inflators in place and i mean carefully you dont wanna damage anything in there. you may have to cut, splice, heatshrink if they have different connectors.

 

[BonesDT]

Lol. Maybe a viable alternative. But my way worked flawlessly for 8 years.

 

[Devan]

OK but did you ever get the steering wheel dead centered? Do you know if they make mustang steering wheels with the air bag blank like without the cobra lettering or mustang horse? im lookin around for one now. I did manage to find this. I dont know where to get it.
http://www.allfordmustangs.com/foru...lar-fr500-type-thunderbird_steering_wheel.jpg
I would love that wheel and my truck is supercharged so the SC logo would kind of make sense and I like the hand holders it has.

*UPDATE*-I just found out its a 10th anniversary cobra steering wheel with a thunderbird supercoupe air bag. Now that would be a nice touch to my truck.

I also just found out that the air bag in that wheel is actually rare to the thunderbird supercoupes, I was only able to find 1 on ebay for $140 as opposed to like $40 or $50 for all the others. Ill prolly get one from Car-part.com from a junkyard that doesnt actually know its rare lol.

I think Im prolly gonna do this mod myself the way I was talkin about but I want this wheel with the SC air bag Mustang flat bottom steering wheel Dam they want like $650 bux and if i get one for my truck im gonna have to get one for my cobra too, my explorer cant have a better mustang steering wheel then my actual mustang lmao

Lol. Maybe a viable alternative. But my way worked flawlessly for 8 years.

Theirs no reason to think that without swapping the explorer steering shaft and clock spring and instead adapting the mustang steering wheel to the explorer steering shaft and clock spring wont work flawlessly for over a decade because your not even removing anything from the column aside from the wheel lol

 

[CDW6212R]

Remember that the truck and car wheels don't swap on the other steering shafts. The splines are different, so you have to plan ahead for that.

 

[Devan]

Remember that the truck and car wheels don't swap on the other steering shafts. The splines are different, so you have to plan ahead for that.

Hey CDW did u read the post that I posted 3 posts before yours? He was saying that the explorers have a splined shaft and that the mustangs have what he calls a DD shaft which is a circle that is flat on the top and bottom or something, He said he swapped the explorer steering shaft and clock spring for a mustang one. I said that I would have cut and grinded the explorer splined shaft so that is was flat on the top and bottom like the mustang shaft plus grind a little extra off so that I can adjust the wheel a little left or right so that I can center the steering wheel alignment because he was saying that his steering wheel wasn't center and that's prolly due to a rotational difference in the mustang steering shaft he had swapped in and then I would cut into the mustang steering wheel frame to accommodate the wiring from the clockspring. and then wire up cruise control, horn and air bag. also then you don't have to worry about the turn signal cam or even taking the column apart or any of that, just grind the explorer shaft to accommodate the mustang steering wheel and cut the mustang steering wheel frame to accommodate the explorer clockspring and wiring its simple. O and install the 1000 ohm resistor on the on/off cruise control buttons on the mustang wheel like Bones was talking about before.

 

[CDW6212R]

That is interesting. I never thought of altering the existing shaft etc. It sounds like a lot to do, but once you get into something, you might see it's not that big of as deal. I'll keep that in mind, I don't have plans for wheel swapping really.

 

[Devan]

That is interesting. I never thought of altering the existing shaft etc. It sounds like a lot to do, but once you get into something, you might see it's not that big of as deal. I'll keep that in mind, I don't have plans for wheel swapping really.

Modifying the mustang steering wheel frame and the existing explorer shaft has to be easier then tearing it and the clockspring out of the column and replacing it with an improper less quality shaft and clock spring based on Bones pictures of the write up. Not to mention the steering wheel will be properly straight and you can make slight adjustments to it.