what the heck is the clock spring i guess its time to google lol thanks guys for the info
The clock spring is a flat cable that has flat copper tracks in it.
It sits inside the steering-wheel boss and carries the electrical inputs from the horn, airbag, cruise control buttons, remote radio buttons etc. from the rotating steering wheel....as you turn left and right...down onto the harnesses for the various items you are controlling such as blowing the horn.
This flat cable is rolled up inside a plastic cable under the steering boss..it is pre-wound by a few turns so that as you turn the steering wheel in one direction it tightens up a bit and in the other direction it loosens up a bit.
All this movement can eventually cause small cracks in the flat copper wiring inside it so that you get an intermittent or constant lack of current flow through that lead.
You need to first disconnect the red lead from the battery and shift the end of the lead to chassis for a few minutes to get rid of all capacitance in the system that could set off the airbags while you are working there!
Then remove the steering boss where the horn button is located...four hex bolts from underneath....10 mm if I remember correctly.
Now remove the bolt holding the steering wheel in place...17 mm socket I think. Punch-mark the exact position of the wheel with respect to the outer spline so that you can put the steering wheel back in its correct place.
Pull off the steering wheel with a small two-prong bearing puller....place a largish nut over the open section of the column where you took the 17 mm head bolt out or else you will damage the threads there with the puller.
Pull off the steering wheel and unplug all the wires from the horn button, airbag activators etc. you will see a black plastic assembly with a clear section in it that is the clock spring assembly. unplug the connector to it and carefully lift up this assembly....make note of how the clock spring inside it is pre-wound...there is a flag inside the clear plastic section that shows if the clock spring is in the correct position and an instruction label explaining this.
Replace the old clock spring with a new one making sure you follow the instructions as per the label and see the flag inside the clear area...otherwise you will snap the clockspring when you turn the wheel to full lock in one of the directions.
Re-fit everything and connect the battery up and hopefully everything works.
This is why first it is worth your while to first trace the harness from the clock spring assembly along the entire harness to look for a bad connection and make sure that your air bag light refers to the driver's bag and not one of the others...codes may help show which bag is causing the problem but I think only a Dealer can pull these particular codes.:shrug:
You can download the KJ Service Manual...includes circuit diagrams..for your year KJ here:
Index of /manuals/Jeep/KJ
