I broke my girl at the GLFWDA Rocks n Valleys Toys for Tots event last month and had to replace my front axle. Doing so presented the opportunity to upgrade from the 190 to the 210, and get a stronger axle, as well as a front locker.
Through some chatting and forum reading, I learned it was possible to switch out the hero panel to a Sasquatch panel with the front locker button. For now, I’ve got the locker running to an Aux switch, but I’d like to find someone willing to do the hero panel swap and run the electrical to the panel and have things nice and clean.
If you, or someone you know, is knowledgeable and confident in taking on this project, I’d love to talk to you. Even more, I’d like to do the work (if the scheduling works out) and learn more about all of it. Though I’m willing to just pay someone, too lol.
So the E lockers are wired to the AWD module (that is what controls the transfer-case as well) . The front is on pins 44/45 (the rear is on 42/43). The Hero Pack is called the SIMA (Switch Input Module A) and yes it communicates to the AWD module on CAN. The AWD Module is mounted on the bracket behind the intake next to the coolant reservoir over the passenger wheel.
So to make it work, you’d need to swap the switch. Then wire the E-locker to the AWD pins. That’s the easy part. You’d then have to reconfigure the AWD module to know the front e-locker is present. Not sure if that would be it, might be a cascading config as many systems can “block” the setting. Likely the logic is in the AWD module but not sure if the messages to the cluster or the drive mode configurations would be the same. Likely not.
So something you’d think is simple, is not. Welcome to modern cars.
I was pretty sure it wouldn’t be simple. Since it seems like some people had figured out how to make it work, I figured I’d see if anyone here might be in that group.
I know all of this is outside of my realm - give me numbers, a computer, and/or a spreadsheet and I can get you what you need, but I’m lost on vehicles (which is why I like doing the work, when possible, so I can learn). Half of what you said might as well have been typed in a foreign language…
This is generic stuff, not specific to Bronco, or even Ford. I can only say so much since I work for Ford, but I can share my personal knowledge and opinions (which are contained below)
CAN = Communication Network between modules (stands for Controller Area Network). It’s a standard, but each OEM has a proprietary “signal/message list” (called a DBC) so effectively even if you had a tool to read CAN you can’t decode the data without the DBC.
Every module (a module is a small electronic ECU your car has 15-20 of them, the PCM is one of these) has software and calibrations on it. The calibrations may contain some configuration info and additional modes (so drive modes some things change, these are multiple calibrations in one file but if you don’t have the mode you might not have those calibrations in your file for example). In addition to that there are also some info stored in things called DIDs, think of them as changeable software parameters. The things people are changing with hacker tools like ForScan are changing these values. Sometimes software and calibrations have all the data but things are “turned on/off” by these DIDs.
TL;DR to update this you’re looking not only wiring up the E-locker to the AWD module, but also perhaps having to change multiple software/calibration files and DID configurations in multiple modules. This is not something a garage mechanic can really do, and I’d recommend you not. Using any files or configs not from the factory or official Ford Dealer can result in unwanted and unsafe operation.
