Archived Clock spring problems... again

[S&N]

First off, I have a 96 2500 4x4 cummins/5 speed. I bought the truck a couple of months ago. At the time, the air bag light was on, and the cruise control didn't work (cruise light on the wheel would come on, but nothing else worked). I naturally assumed the clock spring was bad. Today, I put a new clock spring. Air bag light instantly went out. Great!! Then I drove the truck about 100 yds. and the light came back on. Took the truck out on the highway to try out the cruise. It seemed to work fine for about 5 seconds. Then the pedal went to the floor. Cruise is real eratic. It will give full throttle, then be normal, then no throttle, then full throttle again, all in about 10-15 seconds. I took the clock spring back out, and I'm trying to do a continuity test on it. At the airbag, the plug has three wires but only two pins in the connector. At the other end (down under the dash) there is two wires. The two wires at the bottom have continuity with two of the wires up top, but I get nothing out of the third. Anybody have any ideas what these readings are supposed to be like? And if it checks out fine, and ideas on what might cause my airbag light to come on and my cruise to not function properly?



Thanx for any help you can give me.



Trevor

S&N Fab

 

[FFL8N]

Sorry about your problem, but I have a question. What do you have to do to access the clock spring... ? I may have a similiar problem.

 

[S&N]

It really isn't too bad. I don't know how much different a 2000 is then my 96, but here goes. On the back of the wheel is 4 holes with studs and nuts. Remove the nuts off the studs with a 10mm socket. There is also 2 holes with screws in them (phillips head) for the cruise buttons. Pull the cruise buttons and airbag off.

Take off the plastic pieces that go around the column (right behind the back of the wheel - up to the dash). There were three smaller torx bit screws inside of holes, and one directly on the bottom.

Unhook the single wire inside the wheel (it's for the horn) and then remove the wheel.

You are now looking at the clock spring. On my year, the wires for the air bag run down the column, and then over to the drivers side right underneath the bottom edge of the dash. You will see a yellow connector. Unplug it and fish it up through the column (it's really easy).

On the bottom of the clock spring is the plug in for the cruise. Unplug it, then pull the clockspring off. Pretty easy. Hope ya have better luck with it working than I did. LOL



Trevor

S&N Fab

 

[S&N]

Ok, back to my problem. I needed to go run some errands, so I put the clockspring back in, and put the column back together. This time, the air bag light stayed off for awhile. Then when it did come on, it was only briefly. Now it seems that it just comes on here and there for a few seconds at a time..... instead of staying on constant. I drove it a little more this time than my initial test run. What I'm finding on the cruise is that it will act either very eratic, or it won't do anything at all (green light comes on, but that is it). So, I took the cruise buttons out of the other shop truck (same thing as the 96, but it is a 97) and the cruise acted the same. Green light comes on, but the cruise does what ever it wants, which for the most part is nothing.



Any ideas yet from anyone else?



Trevor

S&N Fab

 

[PHarris]

i have a 2001 which was a flood salvage. clock spring was replaced on a recall surprising being it was a salvage vehicle. But I have had multiple problems with wiring in the same area as you as you might imagine. Anyhow we played with a grounding clip inside the steering wheel and the airbag problem went away. p. s. i have replaced all cruise control pieces in wheel with new and worked on all other switches and I cannot get it to go yet. But what the heg I paid 10,000 for a 34,ooo mile 2001 truck you cant expect everything to work. I know whatever it was that was shorting out would also give us a momentary starting problem from the key switch when the steering wheel was tilted and when they found that short or ground whichever it was that fixed the other airbag problem. pat harris drilling

 

[FFL8N]

Thanks for the reply on how to access the clock spring. I hope all goes well for you as well!



David