2012 GT500 steering wheel swap, have searched A LOT

SNKPWR

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First of all, I'm posting in 2005+ tech instead of tunes because my question is more about electrical wiring than the stereo system.

So I have read many threads (dozens and dozens) on here and other mustang sites and have determined that it is quite easy when swapping a newer GT500 or Boss steering wheel on an 05-09 to make the horn, cruise, and lights to work properly. I also think I have a great handle on making the audio controls work, routing the purple wire from the audio button through a wpt440 connector into and out of the clock spring to a PAC swi-rc, and grounding the green wire.

My question is has anyone come up with a way to make the phone controls of the GT500 wheel work through the PAC? My understanding is that he PAC monitors the resistance on its input wire, which is modified with each different SWC button pushed, so it knows what output to give the aftermarket head unit. If you read through the PAC instructions, you basically use the physical input of each button, in specific order, so the PAC can see which command is associated with each button.

I think the problem lies is that the phone control buttons use common resistances to the music buttons, so you can't just combine the purple and blue wires with the white PAC wire, or the PAC would not know the difference between a phone or music command which share the same resistance, right? I reference this thread showing button resistance values:
http://www.s197forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=96951

So what I'm thinking is that I could just add a resistor inline with one of the button outputs to the PAC to bump the resistance for that buttons' functions to give different values that the PAC sees. That way each button whether on the phone or music wire would all be providing different resistances to the PAC (as far as it knows), and all is happy. Does that sound feasible?

That is also assuming that the manual button programming with the PAC works the way I think it does, by "learning" the resistance of each button and assigning it to a certain function. Can anyone confirm that this is how it works?

Thanks in advance for any help, and sorry if I rambled, I have done a TON of reading and have not been able to find anyone covering this specific issue on the steering wheel upgrade.
 
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SNKPWR

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Well I got it figured out on my own...mostly. The only thing not working is the sync button I was trying to use as voice command, but it came out as Source. I think this is more o a limitation of the pioneer than the box though. All music functions work, and I have call pickup and end. I'll get some more detail a little later when I get some time.
 

SNKPWR

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Yea must not have read through all the threads cuz I have a very detailed post describing exactly what you need to make it happen.
http://www.s197forum.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1903789&postcount=85
As RJ posted up ^^

I think you just need to reprogram your buttons and it should be fine.

Crap. I looked at that thread too, not sure how I missed this post, but definitely is exactly what I was wondering! Thanks!

In actuality though, when I hooked mine up, I found that the white PAC wire split into two leads just off the PAC connector. It was heat shrunk at that junction, and there looked to be a resistor under the shrink. On a hunch I ohm'd out both leads, and sure enough, one was no resistance, and the other was ~540 ohm. So it accomplishes the exact same thing as your diagram does.

The question is, is this some new harness that PAC has started to recently include in the SWI-RC kit? The FAQ that came with the PAC said only one white lead should be present on the connector. When I called their tech support, they only showed that it should have one white lead as well.

So i figured this 500+ ohm resistance difference should accomplish what i needed so, after running purple, green, blue, and yellow through the clockspring, i put the purple to the white (0 ohm) and blue to the white/black (540 ohm) wires on the PAC, and both green and yellow to the black. Oddly enough the black was also split in two, presumably to ground one side to the radio harness and the other to the SWC wire(s).

All worked great except my one button that I think the function I was trying to program for just isn't working right on the pioneer, or maybe I botched the programming of that one button.

Either way, I have almost full functionality, except that my video bypass relay setup seems to not be working anymore, have to troubleshoot that. Hopefully just a loose connection, or possible a backfeed issue that might require a diode.

Also noticed that my dimmer connection (into the TCS lead) was working before this install, and just after, but then this morning it wasn't working, so something may have also come loose there.
 

SNKPWR

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Well I got the dimming and DVD bypass issues fixed, connection on a ground came loose.

As for a write up its really pretty simple once you wrap your mind around it, most of the basics are covered in the linked threads above and a couple links within those threads.

I guess the key points are (if using the PAC SWI-RC) that you will transfer the old plug from your original wheel to the harness in the boss or gt500 wheel as described in the thread linked in my first post. The four wires you just have to match up, and put ground to ground. You don't need to transfer the ground held into the base of the old steering wheel held in with torx screw, as the new wheel has that tied in on the main harness ground, so you just connect green to black. That should get your horn, cruise, and button lights working.

Now for the music and phone buttons, that is where the wpt440 connectors come in. I ohm'd out the wires for these before connecting any leads, while plugged into each side of the clock spring, to determine what wire positions connected to each other on each side. Basically if you are looking at the two connectors oriented the same way, the matching ports are just the same position on each harness. Mine did not have numbers, but you can just imagine if the pins were numbered identically on each, 1 goes to 1, 2 goes to 2, etc.

I wired each of the music and phone wires (purple, green, blue, and yellow) to an individual lead on the wheel-side connector, and that completes the wiring in the wheel. On the column-side connector, the lead connected to purple I connected to the white lead on the PAC, the blue to the white w/ black stripe lead on the PAC, and the green and yellow leads I combined and connected to one of the black leads on the PAC. The purple/green pair is for the music buttons and the blue/yellow pair is for the phone buttons. You just have to connect one of each pair to one of the two white leads, and the other two to ground.

Then you'll need to connect the red from the PAC to a switched ground (I used the red in the metra head unit adapter harness) and the black PAC lead to chassis ground (black wire on metra harness). For the other side of the PAC, you either plug in the 3.5mm jack into the wired remote slot on your aftermarket he's unit, or for at least Kenwood I know, you connect the other wire (blue/green I think) to the connection on the head unit.

That's all there is for wiring. You then just have to make the wires all fit nicely in the steering wheel without getting pinched or interfering with the horn operation.

For programming the PAC, just follow their instructions to a T, for mine that was setting the dial on the side of the PAC to 7 for my pioneer BEFORE TURNING THE KEY ON. I set the PAC to version three (as advised if you follow the 2010+ mustang instructions as you should for this swap), and did not cut either loop. Jut make sure you plan out what buttons you want to use for what functions ahead of time, because it will time out if you take too long on a button, and you'll have to start the programming sequence again.

Then just button everything up an enjoy!

I'm going to see if I can get some pics up later of how mine is installed but I was in a hurry so honestly the wiring is still a mess behind the trim panels until I can go back and straighten everything up some.

Hope this helps those looking to do this swap. I love the feel of the new wheel with the alcamtara, and it is just so much nicer looking. Not to mention the convenience of being able to do so much from the wheel now.

Bad pic but the only one I have on my phone for now. I realize now that I should have taken the pic with the lights on!

 
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quiksilver15

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Glad you liked the steering wheel man, and got it all wired up. You went way further than I probably would have, I'm not a fan of electrical haha
 

jodadejss06gt

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Nice work figuring it out. I grounded all grounds right inside the wheel so I only had to outputs going through the clockspring and wpt connector. I initially wanted to use a set of buttons for boost switching through my Eboost2, but I couldn't get that to work....Thats when I started trying to figure out the send set of buttons/resistances.
 

SNKPWR

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To follow up on this...

I have tried multiple times to reprogram the button functions, and it keeps messing up those two buttons (the music note and the speaking picture one). Regardless of what I try to program into either one, it only accepts the first one I try of the two buttons, and that function is what is commanded by pushing either button. I wonder if the resistance values for those two buttons are too close together (I don't remember what the two values were, and they are not listed in the thread linked in my first post), and the PAC can't tell the difference between the two. Sometimes the commanded function even switched to something else, which only happened once, but was programmed to be source change, then both buttons started working band change, which coincidentally was what I was trying to make the other button do anyway. It then went back to the other function on its own after a minute.

I don't know if there is anything I can do to separate the resistances of those buttons any more, as they seem to run on the same output wire. Perhaps one of the buttons' resistance is just out of spec? Any ideas?
 

VolDead08

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To follow up on this...

I have tried multiple times to reprogram the button functions, and it keeps messing up those two buttons (the music note and the speaking picture one). Regardless of what I try to program into either one, it only accepts the first one I try of the two buttons, and that function is what is commanded by pushing either button. I wonder if the resistance values for those two buttons are too close together (I don't remember what the two values were, and they are not listed in the thread linked in my first post), and the PAC can't tell the difference between the two. Sometimes the commanded function even switched to something else, which only happened once, but was programmed to be source change, then both buttons started working band change, which coincidentally was what I was trying to make the other button do anyway. It then went back to the other function on its own after a minute.

I don't know if there is anything I can do to separate the resistances of those buttons any more, as they seem to run on the same output wire. Perhaps one of the buttons' resistance is just out of spec? Any ideas?

The speaking person, AKA the sync button, cannot be reprogram as far as I heard. The resistance is too similar to a different one or that the resistance is hardy there. I know from the info I have read that it cannot be reprogrammed and that is why most people go with the Boss 302 steering wheel/buttons since they didn't come with sync. I could be wrong, since I never tried it myself, but it was what I have read up on.
 

SNKPWR

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Just as a follow-up FYI, through helping a friend do the same conversion, found that the WPT-440 connector has been obsoleted and you'd be lucky to find them new. It has been replaced with WPT-1242, which should be readily available online and at Ford dealers for about $47 each (still pricy, ouch).
 

phorty

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I went and did the basic install of a '12 GT wheel in my '06 GT. Was not attempting to do the radio controls just cruise and the horn.

Love the wheel, cruise works fine, but the button lights don't come on when I turn on the headlights. Any idea which of the 4 wires control the lights?

Cruise Control Splicing:
Old Connector >>> New Harness:
white >>> gray
blue >>> brown
red >>> red (pwr)
green >>> black (gnd)
 

irishpwr46

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Bumping and subbing to make this easier to find next week
 

NickD87

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I have 3 of the 2011+ steering wheel emblems left from when I put a 13 gt500 wheel in mine, pm me if interested
 

o2sys

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I went and did the basic install of a '12 GT wheel in my '06 GT. Was not attempting to do the radio controls just cruise and the horn.

Love the wheel, cruise works fine, but the button lights don't come on when I turn on the headlights. Any idea which of the 4 wires control the lights?

Cruise Control Splicing:
Old Connector >>> New Harness:
white >>> gray
blue >>> brown
red >>> red (pwr)
green >>> black (gnd)


Did you connect the other buttons as well?
 

NickD87

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2wfitnb.jpg
 

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