Airbag light

[Tog]

Installed new rack bushes and the rear UCA now I have airbag light on and no steering wheel controls ie. radio or cruise control any thoughts

2004 3.7 limited

 

[GitEmSteveDave]

Installed new rack bushes and the rear UCA now I have airbag light on and no steering wheel controls ie. radio or cruise control any thoughts

2004 3.7 limited

I had a no airbag for a day, but then it cleared up and hasn't appeared since. Been in any water? From what I understand, there are two sensors out of three sensors that trigger the airbag, and if even one of them reports a "trip", then it fires a light. Sometimes it's just moisture.

 

[Billwill]

Installed new rack bushes and the rear UCA now I have airbag light on and no steering wheel controls ie. radio or cruise control any thoughts

2004 3.7 limited

You must have disturbed the clock spring or its connections.

Did you remove the steering wheel/clock spring?
If so the clock spring has to be "wound up" a certain amount of turns before being set back in place or it will snap when turned fully in the one direction. There is "flag" showing through the clear plastic section when the clock spring is in its correct position but if it has not been put in correctly then it will have been damaged beyond repair.

Before you mess with the airbag system you Must disconnect the battery and place the red battery lead against chassis for 30 minutes to discharge any capacitance in the system to make sure the airbags do not go off while you are working inside the cabin.

There is a harness going down from the top of the steering column carrying the airbag leads, radio control leads and cruise control leads into the main harness. On RHD KJs I know that this short pigtail harness goes into a male/female connector just below the steering wheel...behind the panel that the driver hits his knees on. This connector can give problems. I had endless problems with this connector so ended up cutting off the male/female connectors and soldering the wires straight though.
I had a discussion previously with a LHD owner who said that this pigtail and male/female connector did not exist on the LHD models so you would need to trace the cable coming down from the steering boss.

An interesting thing about this male/female plug is that as you pull the two plugs apart a metal plate inside the one plug instantly shorts all of the wires together...to stop back EMF/capacitance setting off the airbags!

Otherwise you may have to replace the clock spring. Mark the position of the steering wheel with respect to the spline so that you can align the wheel back to its original position and use a small two-prong bearing puller to remove the steering wheel. Unplug the pigtail from the clock spring.
The new clock spring should come with a white plastic shipping lock that locks the clock spring in its correct orientation. After fitting the assembly into place pull out this white plastic wedge and connect all wiring up and then the battery.
If this does not work you will need to disconnect the battery again and trace the wiring further using the wiring diagrams.

 

[Tog]

You must have disturbed the clock spring or its connections.

Did you remove the steering wheel/clock spring?
If so the clock spring has to be "wound up" a certain amount of turns before being set back in place or it will snap when turned fully in the one direction. There is "flag" showing through the clear plastic section when the clock spring is in its correct position but if it has not been put in correctly then it will have been damaged beyond repair.

Before you mess with the airbag system you Must disconnect the battery and place the red battery lead against chassis for 30 minutes to discharge any capacitance in the system to make sure the airbags do not go off while you are working inside the cabin.

There is a harness going down from the top of the steering column carrying the airbag leads, radio control leads and cruise control leads into the main harness. On RHD KJs I know that this short pigtail harness goes into a male/female connector just below the steering wheel...behind the panel that the driver hits his knees on. This connector can give problems. I had endless problems with this connector so ended up cutting off the male/female connectors and soldering the wires straight though.
I had a discussion previously with a LHD owner who said that this pigtail and male/female connector did not exist on the LHD models so you would need to trace the cable coming down from the steering boss.

An interesting thing about this male/female plug is that as you pull the two plugs apart a metal plate inside the one plug instantly shorts all of the wires together...to stop back EMF/capacitance setting off the airbags!

Otherwise you may have to replace the clock spring. Mark the position of the steering wheel with respect to the spline so that you can align the wheel back to its original position and use a small two-prong bearing puller to remove the steering wheel. Unplug the pigtail from the clock spring.
The new clock spring should come with a white plastic shipping lock that locks the clock spring in its correct orientation. After fitting the assembly into place pull out this white plastic wedge and connect all wiring up and then the battery.
If this does not work you will need to disconnect the battery again and trace the wiring further using the wiring diagrams.

Thanks Billwill the clock spring /steering wheel wasn't removed however the wheel was making clicking noises when turned. Any idea where to get a new clock spring should I need one couldn't find it on rockauto parts list

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

 

[Tog]

so I have the column apart how do I determine if the clock spring is no good

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

 

[turblediesel]

Remove the clockspring from the column; Gently turn the center in one direction until it stops. If it doesn't stop it's bad.

They rip really easy. If the steering wheel gets spun past the nearly imperceptible limit of the tape-wires in the clockspring the wires all break.

FSM directions for installation guarantee breakage. Skip the extra turn they call for.

There's no "spring" in there either.

 

[Billwill]

When I first had my airbag light problems I removed the clock spring....so named because it looks like a clock spring but it is actually a flexible Mylar plastic strip with flat copper strips imbedded within it. I had no problems putting it all back together as per the Service Manual to get the "flag" showing within the clear plastic window. Failure to do this will break the assembly.

This Mylar plastic strip and the flat copper strips can develop hairline cracks with age so the assembly needs to be replaced.

Once I fixed my original problem due to the connector problem...which I bypassed...things worked well for several years. Then I started getting intermittent "air bag" light coming ON....mainly when turning in one direction. This got worse so obviously the hair cracks were getting bigger.

I replaced it with the newest Mopar part....this had more copper tracks on it as it catered for the 2006 KJs that need to read the steering wheel angle for the anti-slip feature. This came with the white shipping plastic plug.

You could disconnect the airbag actuators at the steering boss and try measure out the wiring in case you have a connector disconnected/bad somewhere along the way but be aware of the flat piece of metal I mentioned that shorts out all the connectors...on the airbag side...when the connectors are pulled apart!

Make sure the airbag actuators are completely disconnected so that any static you may introduce on the wiring while measuring with a meter does not get back to the actuators...also do not use an analogue meter!