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Check out my new steering wheel

Joe_R

Active Member
Joined
August 23, 2002
Messages
83
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0
City, State
delaware
Year, Model & Trim Level
2K2 XLT
My wife's Explorer had the std. rubber molded steering wheel. I never liked it and wanted to replace it with a leather wheel. I found one on eBay for $50. Brand new in the box oem Mountaineer wheel. I liked this one because of the silver accents.
I arrived while on vacation (got back Sat.) and last night decided to see what was involved in taking off the steering wheel. I figured I'd need a wheel puller but as it turns out, I did not.
I disconnected the battery, the two bolts holding the airbag, unplugged three connectors (one for the airbag, two for the steering wheel controls) and unbolted the wheel. It slid off with mild coaxing. Put on the new wheel and buttoned everything back up.
As you can see in the pic below, there are three sets of controls. radio, climate control and cruise control. My old wheel only had cruise control. I knew the climate controls wouldn't work since mine is manual. But as it turns out, the radio controls do work, which was a nice added bonus. If it hadn't worked, I was ready to swap out the old controls and put them in the new steering wheel.

sw1.jpg
 



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I like it, :thumbsup:
 






Very nice....
 






the wheel looks great.
 






Looks great!

As a bonus you could easily wire up the non functioning switches to control accessories :D
 






how easy is it to wire all those buttons? there has got to be a lot of wires somewhere :)
 






New airbag work?

If so, good stuff. ;)
 






I'd like to make that swap, but I wonder if it would work in a 2000? You have 2002.....I'm assuming that's a newer year wheel?
 






I believe the 2k2 is different from the 2K
Yes, the airbag works...it's the stock one off the old steering wheel.
It would be an interesting task to wire up the climate controls...one I don't think I'm going to attempt unless it's relatively painless.
I just bought new 5 spoke factory 17" wheels for it as well and will be adding running boards and fog lights.
 






Nice upgrade!

Question though. Isn't there a law against buying airbags anywhere else besides the dealer?
 






or is it the old air bag? he said he got it off of a mounty, and that ain't no mercury symbol on there!
 






Steering wheels are shipped without the airbag. He used his canter section.
 






The new steering wheel did not come with an airbag. I disconnected the airbag from the original steering wheel and mounted it to the new steering wheel. Very simple procedure.
 






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