Clock spring part number

[section525]

Can someone give me the part number for a '96 clock spring?

 

[MONMIX]

F67z 14a664 Ea

 

[section525]

Damn. I pulled a f87b-14a664-dc off a 98+ Explorer. It looked the same.

Monmix.. what's your expeience with installing these? Pretty easy?

 

[MONMIX]

Cake. Done 100's of them ( not all on Explorers mind you )

Disconnect both positive and negative termials of the battery.
Wait fifteen mineuts. Use this time to get an 8mm socket with a six inch extension, a phillips screwdriver, a steering wheel puller. Unfortunately I can not recall the size of the steering wheel nut, but I think it is a 17mm.

Remove the air bag, via two 8mm nuts on the left and the right of the steering wheel. Use care when unplugging the bag. The yellow connector should just pull to you.

Remove the steering collum surround. Phillips screws.

Make sure the steering wheel is 100% forward and centered. Remove that sucker.

The clock spring should be looking right at you. It is held on with phillips screws OR T-20 torx ( I cant recall ) You might want to consider removeing the knee bolster to acess the wires at the other end of the clock spring. I have gotten used to working around it but, easier IS easier.

Now here is an important tip. The new clock spring will have a "pop tab " on it.
DO NOT remove this tab untill the clock spring has been instaled.
The clock spring can only go on one way, you cant get it wrong.

Lemmie know if you need any thing else,,,

 

[section525]

So..... this is something you can't reuse? As in, I can't use a junkyard one?

 

[MONMIX]

well you are gonna need to make sure you have correctly centered it.

Some times the cetering directions are printed right on there.

It is something like, turn it all the way to one end till it stops. Then turn is back the other way counting the number of turns. When you get to the end devide by 2 ( not number not the clock spring ) turn back that much. That should center the clock spring.

 

[mounty71]

I know this thread is 7 years old and there are tons of other clock spring threads, but I figured I'd give it a bump instead of making a new one, because surprisingly this is the only one I've found with any sort of instructions on doing this job yourself. If there is in fact another thread with instructions, please post a link, but I haven't been able to find one.

Anyway, a few updates on the instructions in post #4 above, since I tried tackling this today. The torx bit needed is a T-50. Not sure what steering wheel nut Monmix is referring to, but it was just the T-50 bolt holding my steering wheel on. A gear puller tool is required as opposed to a steering wheel puller, and the tool needs two teeth placed 180* from each other, with the hooks pointing to the center. Once again Ford's ingenious engineering department chose to be difficult and not use a steering wheel puller to remove the steering wheel. Go figure.

And on my 2000 V8 Mountaineer with the 2-spoke wheel with radio, cruise, and HVAC controls, I needed to remove the plastic and steel panels below the steering column, as well as the steering column surround plastic pieces. And for this model truck, I believe I have the correct part number which is XL2Z14A664AA.

I say "believe" because I wasn't able to finish the job. This was more involved than anyone else made it seem to be, from what I've read. I see no possible way to replace the clock spring without completely removing the interior pieces I previously mentioned, and I don't see it being possible without pulling apart the ignition either. I ended up accidentally breaking the plastic housing of this wire that goes to the ignition, which I later realized is just for the door ding when the key is in the ignition. Still, the new clock spring includes this wire and connector, but I don't see how to replace it without taking the ignition apart.

There is also this little black circuit board housing with the green connector below the ignition, which needs to be moved to get the clock spring harness out. It takes loosening a screw and prying it down to get the harness out, which is still a little tough to do, and you risk breaking the housing if you don't take apart the ignition.

The space that the harness runs from the steering column down below the dash is pretty tight, so again, taking apart the dash pieces seems pretty much necessary.

If I am missing something and the ignition isn't involved at all, please tell me how to do it, because otherwise I will be taking my truck in to a dealer to do the replacement for me next week. I personally want nothing to do with any ignition wiring, and I have seen no previous mention of the ignition.

 

[mounty71]

Bump...

Looking close up with the pictures, it appears that maybe the inner black plastic ring around the ignition with the attached green connector can slide out until it hits the black part that the key goes into, and that will allow room to get that blue connector out of the ignition? I can't really remember if I tried doing this or not, at the time it seemed like there was no possible way.

Anyone experienced with this?

 

[MONMIX]

with out being there I can not be of a whole lot of help, but you are barking up the wrong tree.

Its been quite some time, but as I can best recall, with the steering wheel off, and the trim around the column removed there is one or two possibly three wires that connect to the front of the clock spring. One for the air bag, this is yellow. Then the horn. This will be a single wire on one or possibly both sides, (left and right ) then what ever steering wheel controls there may be.
There should be three or four small screws holding the clock spring to the steering column. 20mm torx I believe. Once you remove them, the clock spring will have some play. You can slide it to you and examine the harnesses that exit from the back. These harnesses should not be more than three or four inches long before they make a connection some where.
I can say with a fairly high degree of certainty that the blue connector in your photo is NOT a part of the clock spring harness.

 

[mounty71]

Thanks for the response. It strangely seems like the clock springs you have seen are much different than mine. My clock spring, both original and replacement, have no screws holding it onto the column, just a few plastic snap clips around the perimeter. The only thing I remember having a smaller Torx screw, could have been Tx20 (it was a security torx screw), was the one screw holding that black housing with green connector to the bottom of the ignition. The yellow harness of the clock spring definitely was longer than 4 inches, it stretched all the way down close to the hood release. And the blue connector I broke is at the end of a single black wire coming straight out of the yellow harness of the clock spring, and my replacement clock spring has this same blue connector on it, so it's definitely part of the clock spring.

I might try taking things apart and doing it again one more time before admitting defeat. Anyone else care to share their experience?

 

[MONMIX]

Eh' my memory is shot then.

 

[mounty71]

Decided to try this again tonight, and I finally got the old clock spring out and the replacement in. What I suspected about the black plastic part sliding out was true, and I was able to get the connector into the ignition. I mistook a jagged edge on the old blue connector as the place where I thought it broke, and I didn't look closely enough at the new clock spring realize that the new connector had a protective piece clipped onto it, making it look like the unprotected original connector was missing a part of it. So it wasn't broken after all.

But my horn still doesn't work. Which leads me to the one question I have still...what is that yellow pull tab even for? Looking at the old clock spring, I don't see anything obvious that it is securing or protecting prior to installation. Only thing it seems to do is keep the clock spring from rotating completely around before installing, which would negate the need to "center" it anyway. Reason I ask is, I was almost done reassembling everything when I realized I forgot a screw, so I took everything back apart, and I needed to remove the new clock spring even though I'd already pulled the yellow tab. Did I fudge something up by doing that?

Pressing the horn, I can hear the relay from under the hood, and I could hear it before replacing the clock spring too, if that makes a difference.

 

[MONMIX]

If you hear the relay clicking for the horn the problem is past the clock spring.

Yes the pull tab centers every thing. If you install it correctly and pull the tab, you dont need to center.
Maybe it will make more sense if you understood what is going on inside the clock spring.
It is a spring loaded coil of wires that allows you to turn the steering wheel completely from one side to another with out binding or stretching the wires.

You CAN remove the clock spring with the pop tab removed. Simply tape the two parts in place so no rotation can take place. Just remove the tape after you reinstall it. ( duh )

 

[mounty71]

Haha. Thanks. So then I just spent $180 on a new clock spring for nothing. Sweet. My cruise doesn't work either sometimes, and the fuse and relay both checked out okay prior to swapping the clock spring. Any idea what could be the problem then?

 

[MONMIX]

There is a chance it could be in the clock spring since the controls go through there.