Steering wheel swap: 2005 wheel on 2000 van. modification po

[Sweetums]

Hi all!
I have been planning to re-cover my steering wheel and found a donor wheel yesterday. My van is a 2000 E350 with cruise controls on the wheel. The junk yard unit is off of a 2005 F350 with every option known to man! My question is weather or not I can harness some of the capabilities engineered into the newer wheel. It has volume control, station up/down, climate (which I know I can't use), ejector seat, death ray, etc.

I pulled the clock spring and multi function switch too.

Is there any chance I can at least use the radio controls (probably with an aftermarket deck)? If not, is there a way to at least use the switches to control other peripherals (like maybe my power folding transformer seat, rear-view camera, radar jammer or simulated blow-off valve sound creator [dont laugh, I've seen them!])?

I'll post pictures of said wheel as soon as I can get out and take some.

Thanks!!!

[carringb]

The vans are pre-wired for aux radio controls, however the connector is actually in the B-pillar, because they used to offer rear radio controls. So.... its possible, but it might take some serious wiring work.

[JWA]

Factory controls in the steering wheel tend to be very specific to the original vehicle's chassis wiring and electronic options that were/are offered within a few model years typically. Another aspect is how do those controls work in the electrical sense? As an example Ford's cruise control or Vehicle Speed Control (VSC) steering wheel switches operate over just three wires which to the casual observer is illogical. In reality those switches are contact points that engage different resistance values that are read by the microprocessor inside the VSC device. All this has a point---trust me.

In order to re-purpose those switches will require EVTM's both from the van and the F-Series to know how they effect their changes. From there you'll have to fabricate a circuit that can "read" the signals they produce but have them act in a different way than originally intended. So then................

If you're up for some serious electrical re-engineering I'd love to follow your progress in all this. I do know from personal trial and error adapting an F-Series instrument cluster into an E-Series has serious challenges very similar to doing the same thing with steering wheel controls.

Best of luck--------keep us updated please.

[Sweetums]

Thanks guys!

@JWA, I saw your reply on Ford Trucks first then read this ; )

I'd pretty much come to the same conclusions, once I investigated the circuitry within the steering wheel. If there is a way I can repurpose just the clock spring wiring, I could come up with something using aftermarket switches, but the easiest solution may be aftermarket wireless controls (proprietary to whichever head unit i end up with) mounted to the back (probably) of the steering wheel I recover. I had volume and station up/down buttons on the back of the wheel in a Dodge I had and I really liked them back there. Other than a "mode" switch or something, I can't really think of what I'd really like on the wheel anyway. If it was a diesel, a chip mode selector would be cool! A friend had a Euro-spec Audi RS4 that had that on the steering wheel (the button simply said "S"). It was pretty cool! That or a low range EMP device button for idiot drivers. Could be useful!

E

[JWA]

Sweetums I'm with ya 1,000,000% on the convenience of steering wheel switches---they're just tooooooooo cool. Over the summer I acquired a Volvo S-80 with radio and cruise controls----I've quickly grown accustomed to their use.

The wireless controls especially as you outline them would be a very nice addition if it could be easily achieved. Naturally most of us would have various devices and features we'd want to control so there's just one of the challenges---how to integrate it all?

For me a radio mute button would be nice when taking incoming phone calls. Even though my Kenwood has Bluetooth capability my phone doesn't (my personal preference) that would be one of my "needs".