removing steering wheel (airbag)

Disconnect battery. Disconnect wires going to airbag. Unbolt airbag from steering wheel. Place face down on the floor in a safe place.

Conor ( snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

IMPORTANT STEP MISSING HERE. Go for a cuppa and some biccies.

Seriously.

Give the airbag system time for the capacitors to discharge.

I'm not sure the orientation matters - think about what happens to it in the car, in use. It's sitting vertically, and gets twirled and shocked all over the shop. You'd be seasick. Just put it somewhere you aren't going to trip over it.

• Warning * you must disconnect the battery and leave disconnected for at least half an hour before you attempt to disconnect the multi-plug to remove the airbag!!! you might have to have the air bag light reset after refitting.

Should always place airbags FACE UP, when not in the vehicle.

Should it go off for any reason (highly unlikely when not plugged in), you want to have the nice cushioned bit going upwards, with the nice metal/plastic bit trying to go downwards into the floor. Not have the nice cushioned bit launch the nice metal/plastic section skywards at great speed.

moray

M Cuthill (moray_dot snipped-for-privacy@v21.me.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Just shove it on the back of the shelf, next to the old jamjars full of screws...

Consider what happens if it goes off.

Ian Stirling ( snipped-for-privacy@mauve.demon.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

True - but what's the chance of that? *MINIMAL*.

I had one kicking about here for a month or two, then round at a friend's place for a month or two before it made it's way back into another car. Just a windbag in a steering wheel. Strangely, nobody's dead.

The chances are almost zero. But if you can reduce the hazard if it explodes to almost zero, then the overall risk becomes even more vanishingly small. Belt and braces is never a bad plan.

just another note if you have to take the clockspring off, make sure you realign it correctly ! the clockspring forms the electrical connection between the air bag module in the steering wheel and the rest of the air bag system, it allows the wheel to be turned while maintaining a connection between the air bag and connections, if your unlucky it is possible to break the clockspring when the steering is turned all the way to one side or the other if its not reliagned correctly, if you do break it ( the clockspring) it would prevent the air bag from deploying in an accident, and would also cause the SRS/ airbag light warning light to come on. even though this applies to most airbags, they are not all the same set up, hence the data manuals we have in the workshop on airbag removal & safety.

In news: snipped-for-privacy@i39g2000cwa.googlegroups.com, si wrote something quite bizarre, possibly in an effort to confuddle the world. It went like so;

Dead easy, soak the wheel in petrol, leave it for a minute or two, then undo all the screws using the bent edge of a zippoT lighter. Make sure you occasionally light the lighter.

Alternatively, take it to your local garage and let them do it.

Would it achieve a great deal of lift if you put it face down, ran some very long wires to it, and set the bag off? :)

It goes *BANG*? If it's not secured to anything, what difference does it make which way it's facing? More hard bits flying around if it's upside down, if anything, I'd have thought?

Yes, you want it to, if it goes bang, to simply sit on the ground like a rapidly unfolding flower. The velocity when it goes off is quite large, and it will throw it a fair way, at a reasonable speed.

Thanks for that. I'd forgotten about it.

Conor ( snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

You forgot about the tea and biccies?!? And you call yourself a truck driver?

Nope. They tried it on mythbusters - sat a crash test dummy on an airbag and set it off, it only jumped about 6"

But then again *without* a 12 stone crash test dummy on it, it would probably have shifted a bit more than that...

PC Paul ( snipped-for-privacy@home.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

FUCK. That'll be a "Yes", then...?