How to replace cruise control buttons (w/ pics)

[MurderedSport]

Hey all. Today was the day I finally decided to go to the junkyard and find a new pair of cruise control buttons for my 2001 explorer sport. This will work for 2001-2003 explorer sport, 2001-2005 sport trac, 1999-2003 ranger. It may also work for some of the four door explorers but I am not sure since I have not owned one.
Since I have taken so much information from this forum I decided to give back a little.

The main reason for replacing these is they might have just stopped working, your plastic bracket holding them into the steering wheel may have broke, or cracked like mine did due to bad design.

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So let's get started. Here are the tools you will need:

A phillips screwdriver/drill, a small flat head, and a 5/16 socket.
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First you will need to grab your small flathead screw drive and pop off these two little circle plugs on each side of the steering wheel.

(yes that is duct tape holding the cruise button on)

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Once you pop these little plugs off there will be a 5/16 bolt under both the plugs that holds the airbag on the wheel. Unbolt these and hold onto them.

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Once you take the two bolts behind the plugs out, the airbag on the steering wheel should come right off like so:

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There should be one wire connecting to the airbag from the steering wheel. Unhook it.

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Now set the airbag aside. You should be looking at something like this. (hopefully without the duct tape)

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There are two screws holding both the cruise buttons to the wheel. Take your phillips screw driver or drill and unscrew the 2 bolts holding in both the buttons.

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Now this is a tricky part. The wiring harness going to the cruise button is super hard to get out by hand but I found a little trick. This is where your small flathead will come into play again. Take it and GENTLY put it in between the wiring connector like I did and pry ONE end of the connector out. Then you should be able to take your hand and pull it out pretty easily. It should look like this when you wedged the one side out with the flathead:

As you can see half of it is out of the connector. You can now use your hand to pull it out. Do this step for both cruise control buttons.
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Now you can take both your new cruise control buttons, plug the wiring harness back into them, and screw them back onto the steering wheel. Should look like this:

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Now time for the airbag you set aside. First things first, make sure you plug the wire back in or your steering wheel airbag will NOT deploy during the event of an accident.

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Then you want to grab the two 5/16 bolts that were holding the bag in on the side of the steering wheel and tighten them back up.
If you want to torque your bolts prodemand says 10-13 footpounds.

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Once your bolts are holding the airbag in place you can pop those little plastic inserts back over the bolt hole like so:

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Them bam! You're finally finished. Enjoy your new looking steering wheel and functional cruise control!

Any questions? Feel free to ask. I will also be adding how to fix the cruise control light hopefully soon.

 

[toypaseo]

Note: When I mentioned replacing my cruise switches to my ex-Ford mechanic neighbor, he also suggested disconnecting the battery, but also suggested pushing the brake pedal to "use up" any leftover electrical voltage in the electrical system...

 

[koda2000]

Note: When I mentioned replacing my cruise switches to my ex-Ford mechanic neighbor, he also suggested disconnecting the battery, but also suggested pushing the brake pedal to "use up" any leftover electrical voltage in the electrical system...

You should absolutely do this (you can turn on the headlights, or step on the brake pedal, after disconnecting the battery to discharge any remaining voltage in the system). Having an air bag accidently go off in your face can ruin your hold day.

Note: The reason you need to insert something between the bottom of the switch and the wire connector is that there's a small lip on the bottom of the connector that gets hung up on the switch. I've used a feeler gauge and others have reported using a thin bladed knife to accomplish the same thing. I've also managed to swap the tiny light blubs inside the switches, but do this at your own risk as the covers easily tear, especially if they're used switches.

 

[alohamonte]

Thank you for posting this. Looks easy enough. My switches still work but one of them no longer illuminates. I assume those switches can open up and the bulb inside can be replaced.

 

[koda2000]

Thank you for posting this. Looks easy enough. My switches still work but one of them no longer illuminates. I assume those switches can open up and the bulb inside can be replaced.

To be clear, I'm talking about the soft button controls: To get at the bulbs the cover (the buttons) have to be carefully pried off the switch housing. As I said, beware, if your buttons are old they may crumble. If I recall correctly, the white plastic circuit board came out with the cover. When I did mine, the board's plastic retaining clips in the housing broke. This was not a big deal as I had a spare housing, but if I'd known the board would come with the buttons, I probably could have prevented the damage. I think you can get replacement bulbs from RadioShack, but they wont be green. If you're really lucky, you can sometimes remove the tiny green cover from the old bulb and transfer it to the new bulb, but don't could on it. Another good source for auto bulbs is www.autolumination.com but the shipping may be more than the bulbs.

 

[alohamonte]

Usually with those small bulbs you have to buy a couple of dozen of them at once.

Right I assume I would have to open the switch to get to the bulb....the switches are about $80 right?

 

[koda2000]

Usually with those small bulbs you have to buy a couple of dozen of them at once.

Right I assume I would have to open the switch to get to the bulb....the switches are about $80 right?

Yes, at least $80 for new switches. I found some good used switches on eBay for $35, but one had a burnt out bulb.

 

[MurderedSport]

Usually with those small bulbs you have to buy a couple of dozen of them at once.

Right I assume I would have to open the switch to get to the bulb....the switches are about $80 right?

I actually got mine for $6 at the junkyard haha, but it was the memorial half price day so it would have actually been $12.
I am also posting how to change the light soon, on my old set one bulb was burnt out and on the new set ones burnt out so I am taking the old bulb that worked and putting it in the new set.

Note: When I mentioned replacing my cruise switches to my ex-Ford mechanic neighbor, he also suggested disconnecting the battery, but also suggested pushing the brake pedal to "use up" any leftover electrical voltage in the electrical system...

I used to do this every time I messed with the steering wheel but during auto school my teacher proved to us there is no possible way it can go off unless it gets in a crash or you trick it to go off, which is complicated. The airbag sensor has to have feedback that the car got in a wreck (it measures it in G-force). It has to have a lot of G's all of a sudden for it to detonate. Even if you take a 12v battery and hook the wires up to it, it will not go off. I forget exactly what he said but he said something like it needs a specific voltage, ohm, and resistance or it will not go off. He even showed us him hooking up a 12v battery to the airbag and it did not go off. Then he showed us one going off by hooking it up to this huge mess of wires that tricked the sensor to think it was in an accident then it went off.
After messing with this kind of stuff for a living I have yet to see one go off or even hear a story of one going off while working on it.

 

[Billy00NC]

I got switches with harness from Amazon for a really good price. I tried just using the switches and the existing harness, and my horn went off continuously. Turns out the horn and cruise control are on the same circuit, and my new switches were reverse polarity from the original ones. It really isn't that hard to switch out the harness, so I recommend testing the hookup before you install.

 

[intelisevil]

I had my '00 XLT (purchased in 2010) for a few years and didn't know the switches had lights in them.

One night I was cruising along and the lights in the Left one came on. A couple of months later the lights in the Right one came on. They've both been working for three years now!

 

[JB3]

Great writeup!
This exact procedure will work on 99 sports also. Decoration on the wheel is the only difference.

 

[NCDan]

I bought a replacement set of cruise control switches, installed them just like these instructions (this isn't rocket science, right?) and reconnected the battery. No juice. Not even a click. The only thing that comes to mind is that I reused the existing wiring harness since the switches worked, but were just worn out cosmetically. Do you suppose it's mandatory that I use the new wiring harness with the new swtiches? I don't know what the difference would be, but I have no other ideas.

 

[fastpakr]

No juice for the switches to control cruise, or no electrical power to the whole truck?

 

[NCDan]

No juice for the switches to control cruise, or no electrical power to the whole truck?

No electrical to the whole truck. Nothing happens when I turn the key.

 

[fastpakr]

The cruise harness wouldn't do that, old or new. Check the rest of your work.

 

[allmyEXes]

I found the new switches for 1998-01. Will they work on 1997 Explorers and 1997 Mountaineers ?

 

[SVTom]

I found the new switches for 1998-01. Will they work on 1997 Explorers and 1997 Mountaineers ?

I'd like to know that,myself,for a 1997 Ranger.

 

[RickOTR]

I'd like to know that,myself,for a 1997 Ranger.

Yes they will. Just different colors. Blue for 95-97, and green for 98 up

 

[SVTom]

Yes they will. Just different colors. Blue for 95-97, and green for 98 up

Thanks a bunch for that info! The lights aren't bright enough for that to be a bother. (or last very long,either!)

 

[allmyEXes]

@SVTom I'm not so sure of that. Can you post a picture of your 1997 ranger steering wheel with the instruments in the background. I'm thinking that your dash may look like the 1991-94 Explorers. The 1995-2001? Explorers or maybe later and the 1998 to 2010-11 Rangers dash and steering wheels look like each other.