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Old 10-26-2005, 08:36 PM
Quintin Quintin is offline
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: Georgia on my mind...
Vehicle: 2004 Ford F150
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Back inside the vehicle...

The driver's side after removal of the steering column. Disconnect the eleventy connectors going to various things on the steering column, turn the ignition switch to off and wiggle the steering wheel back and forth a little until it locks. This prevents the steering wheel from running off and damaging the clockspring. Now, unbolt the steering shaft pinch bolt (13mm), unbolt the shift indicator (5.5mm) and disconnect it from the shift lever, disconnect the column shifter cable and unbolt the column by removing the 6 - 13mm bolts holding it to the dash support. Also note the three 7mm bolts you'll have to remove to get the dash out as well. There's a 10mm nut on the lower left, and a couple grounds (8mm bolts) to remove in the driver's kickpanel. And while you're down there, go ahead and pull the bulkhead connectors through into the cab that you disconnected from under the hood.

The passenger's side after removal of the airbag. The airbag is retained by one 8mm bolt under the oval shaped cover on top of the dash, and two 8mm bolts accessed through the glovebox. Note, do not unbolt the glovebox hinge to get to those bolts, just unclip it, fold it down, remove the bolts and snap it back into place. The glovebox is spring loaded and can be a pain to get back into place. There's four (or six, CRS, sorry) 7mm bolts you'll have to remove here. There's also a couple more grounds in the passenger's side kickpanel you'll want to remove, as well as connectors to things like the inertia switch, air suspension switch (if equipped), and blower motor amongst other things. This is also where I'd recommend going into the passenger's side front wheel well and disconnecting the antenna lead at the mast and shoving it through the firewall, this'll get you more room to work with when pulling the dash back.

The top of the dash. Now, this'll vary according to what you're working on. On a Navigator, the dash panel that hides the two 7mm bolts you need to get to comes off in one whole piece. In an F150 or Expedition, it's got two or three little plugs that you've gotta pop out to get to the bolts.

Continued...

Last edited by Quintin; 10-26-2005 at 08:40 PM.
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