Various Ramblings
Swapping a Mustang Steering Wheel

In April, 2010, I bought a 2010 Mustang GT. I got exactly what I wanted in it, which is to say not much. No DVD nav system, sunroof, lighted door sills, or other useless frivolity. Just a base V-8 GT with no frills. This worked out well for me except for the steering wheel. The base model GT has a steering wheel made out of some sort of foam rubber compound. Although it is nicely shaped, the feel of it is awful and it doesn't have the 10-and-2 position grips I like. And it looks like it should be in a low-buck Kia rental from Avis instead of in Ford's pony car.

After doing some research I found that I could swap out the basic wheel with the leather wrapped 2005-2009 SVT steering wheel. Per the Ford Racing Parts site, there are two models of this wheel. Model M-3600-C has red stitching while M-3601-C has black stitching and comes with a more robust leather shifter boot. More research at the standard Ford Parts site shows there are several different wheels for the 2010 but the one I wanted was part 3600C, the standard leather 3-spoke unit without redundant controls. After shopping around, I got mine for about $275 with shipping.

My research also found that I needed to replace the bolt holding the wheel to the column when I did the swap. This is part W705985 on the Mustang parts list. I bought two. One for the swap and a second in case I wanted to do another swap in the future or sell the original wheel. The two bolts cost about $15 with shipping and can be ordered through several sources including a local Ford dealer.

Once I had my two required parts, it was time to install the steering wheel. I cracked open the official Ford shop manual for the Mustang and found the steps needed to make the swap were scattered over both volumes. So in a nutshell, here's what I did and some notes I took along the way. Pictures comparing the two steering wheels are at the bottom of the page.

Before beginning this make sure you have the car parked where the steering wheel is pointing straight (i.e. - wheels directly ahead).

• Depower the airbags - THIS IS A MUST. Airbags are dangerous. Make sure you do this before doing anything else.
  1. Turn everything in the car off.
  2. Ensure no key was in the ignition.
  3. Pull fuse 31 out of the fuse box hidden under the front passenger kick panel. This takes the airbag system offline.
  4. Turn the ignition to ON to check that the airbag system was in fact offline. The check is to watch the airbag light on the instrument panel when you turn the key to on. It will come on for a few seconds, go off then come back on steady. If it doesn't go out or flash, the airbags are offline.
  5. Turn the ignition to OFF and removed the key.
  6. Pull the ground wire off the battery. This ensures all power to the airbag system is off. The nut on the connector is 8mm.
  7. Wait 60 seconds before continuing with your work to allow any residual power to bleed from the system.
• Remove the old steering wheel
  1. Locate the small caps covering the airbag retaining bolts. There is one on either side of the steering wheel just behind the horizontal spokes. A small flat blade screwdriver works well.
  2. Remove each of the bolts. They are also 8mm. You may need a needle-nose plier to pull the bolts out of the hole.
  3. Gently rock the center of the steering wheel (the round horn/airbag bit) while pulling it away from the wheel. There are two wires connected to the airbag module so don't yank it.
  4. Once the center is free, disconnect the two wires from the airbag module. These are secured by two squeeze clips. Pinch and pull to release the connectors. Don't worry about marking them; they are unique and will only go into one of the module sockets properly.
  5. Set the center piece aside.
  6. Using a 1-inch socket, gently loosen then remove the center hub bolt.
  7. Once out, toss the bolt into your metal recycling container.
  8. Gently rock and pull the steering loose from the hub. The cruise control wiring is still connected to the wiring harness on the column so don't yank the wheel.
  9. Once the wheel if off, reach around behind it and unclip the cruise control wiring from its socket.
  10. Note the position of the clockspring (the plastic U-shaped piece with two pegs that spins around). Ensure this stays in the "straight-ahead" - i.e. the pegs should be at the 9 and 3 positions. This is important!! You screw this up and your steering wheel won't be straight even though your alignment is.
• Swapping wiring - due to the the difference in the connectors on the wiring that powers the cruise control and horn, you must swap the wiring between the two wheels.
  1. Remove the large spring loaded metal U-shaped plate from the center of the old wheel.
  2. Remove the wiring for the cruise control buttons. The connectors for these are clip-in type. A small flat blade screwdriver may be needed to get the clips to release.
  3. Repeat the last two steps with the new steering wheel.
  4. Put the wiring from the old steering wheel into the new steering wheel.
  5. Put the large metal U-shaped plate back in the steering wheel.
• Install the new steering wheel
  1. Ensure the clockspring is in the correct position and place the steering wheel up to it, aligning the pegs and hub to the proper holes.
  2. Feed the airbag wiring through opening in the rear of the wheel.
  3. Plug in the cruise control connector.
  4. Push the steering into place.
  5. Using the new hub bolt, secure the wheel to the hub. The bolt should be tightened to 41 lb-ft.
  6. Retrieve the center piece and reconnect the wiring to the airbag module.
  7. Slide the center piece back into positions, aligning the brackets on the side with the holes on the column.
  8. Secure the center piece to the column without the two bolts.
  9. Replace the small caps on either side of the steering wheel.
• Repower the airbag system
  1. Place the key in the ignition and turn it to ON.
  2. Replace fuse 31 in the fuse box in the front passenger footwell.
  3. Reconnect the battery ground cable.
  4. Turn off the radio. No, your station presets didn't disappear.
  5. Turn the ignition key to OFF.

One last note. You will get a flashing engine light the first time you go to crank the car. This is because the Powertrain Control Module was reset when you disconnected the battery ground cable. After driving the car a few times, the PCM will "relearn" and this flashing light will cease.

And that was about it. Pretty easy to do and the feel of the wheel is much better.

References:
     2010 Mustang Workshop Manual Volume 1, pages 501-20B-172 and 501-20B-193 thru 501-20B-194.
     2010 Mustang Workshop Manual Volume 2, page 211-04-2 thru 211-04-3.

The old steering wheel.	The new steering wheel.

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