How to Replace Airbag Clock Spring 2004-08 Dodge Ram 1500

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In this video, we're going to show you how to remove the airbag clock spring in this 2008 Dodge Ram 1500, equipped with ESP or electronic stability program. This information is going to be very similar to vehicles that were not equipped with ESP. There will actually be fewer steps.

The items you'll need for this repair are a T15 Torx screwdriver, a 10mm deep socket and small ratchet, a 13mm socket, breaker bar, and torque wrench, as well as a stubby #2 Phillips screwdriver.

While your airbags are meant to be a safety device, if you are not careful when working on them, they can be very dangerous. Any time you are working on or around your SRS or airbag system—these can be identified with a yellow wiring harness or a yellow electrical connector to designate that it is an airbag system you're working with—be sure to disconnect your battery for at least 30 minutes to allow any charge left inside the vehicle in its modules to be drained.

Any time you go near one of those connectors or harnesses, ground yourself to a metal part of the vehicle to remove any static charge that may be on your body. Before working on any part of the electrical system, you'll want to use the 10mm wrench to remove the negative terminal of your battery and set it off to the side. After your battery has been disconnected for at least half an hour to make sure that all the charge is removed from your modules, remove these two T15 Torx screws from the bottom of the steering column cover, as well as the one underneath here, and the one on the back of the tilt lever. After removing the screw from the steering column tilt lever, pull the lever out, and pull apart the plastic cover on the column, and remove it.

Install your key, click it to the run position, and rotate your wheel to the 3 o'clock or 9 o'clock position. This will allow you to access these two large holes on the back side of the wheel, which will give us room to get to the 10mm bolts that allow us to remove the airbag. Going to use a deep 10mm socket and ratchet, remove those two 10mm bolts on the back of the wheel. Carefully remove the airbag from the column.

Be sure to ground yourself on some metal components inside the vehicle before handling any portion of the connectors on the airbag. Again, these yellow wires, the harness covers, designate that this is an SRS system we're working on. While the rubber gloves are an insulator, you do want to make sure that you always remove static charge from your body before touching the live triple connectors on the airbags. Push in on the two tabs, and work the connectors out of the back of the airbag. Be sure to remember which way they came out.

Looking at it this way, our black one's on the left, brown is on the right. Connector here for the horn. Once the airbag is out, you're going to want to place it in a safe place, away from any type of static or electrical charges, and, if possible, place it under a sturdy bench or somewhere that, in case of a deployment, would contain the airbag. Remove the key from your ignition cylinder to allow the steering wheel to lock into place.

Using the 13mm socket and breaker bar, counter hold your wheel and loosen the center bolt. Move your steering wheel to the 12 o'clock position. Remove the two electrical connectors from the clock spring. These are different sizes, so you don't have to worry about confusing them. Push down on the tab, remove the smaller connector, put a hand on both sides of the back of the steering wheel, and tap out, alternating left and right, until the wheel is off the splines. You can also go from the 12 and 6 o'clock positions until the wheel comes free.

Remove the two #2 Phillips head screws securing the clock spring to the steering column. Pull it off its alignment pins and lay it down so you can remove the electrical connectors at the bottom. Remove the top and the bottom Phillips head screws. You use a stubby screwdriver for both, just because we'll need the stubby on the top. These screws do not need to be removed fully, we just need to unthread them enough that they are no longer in the column. Remove the red safety tab and connector here. While I was lifting up on the female side, there's a tab here. Lift up on that. Remove this plug. Allow this hazard retaining bracket here, the hazard and multi-function switch retainer, to hang. Remove the harness here. Pull up to release the clip.

Often, a new airbag clock spring will come with a tab in it to keep this locked into the center clocked position, but if you're re-installing it, or for some reason that lock has fallen out of your new part, there's an easy way to clock and center this spring. Move it all the way in one direction until you feel it get tight. Do not push it past this point of being tight, as the wiring inside can break. We count how many rotations we get out of it in the opposite direction: One, two, three, four, and it gets tight again at five, meaning that two-and-a-half rotations, so two full rotations at the 6 o'clock positions, and an additional rotation to the 12 o'clock position, will center this.

We have one half, one, one-and-a-half, two, two-and-a-half. We now get two-and-a-half rotations of the steering wheel before our steering wheel will hit the lock—that will prevent our airbag clock spring from being damaged.

Reinstall the wiring harness into these retainers here. Reinstall this metal hook into the slot for the connector. It locks into place like that. Flip this assembly back on the steering column, and push in our two connectors. I'm going to push down the red safety over here. Since we didn't remove our screws, we'll just send them the rest of the way back into the steering column.

Reconnect the two connectors at the bottom of the clock spring on the back side. Before we line it up, we're going to double check by going all the way to a locked position, the right or left. We're going to go one, two, and a half rotations to re-center before we install it back on.

Reinstall those two Phillips-head screws. Examining the splines on the inside of your steering wheel, you'll see that there is a thicker spline at the 12 o'clock position. This larger spline will correspond with the larger notch at the 12 o'clock position when the spline is in our steering column, which, in turn, will line up with our airbag clock spring. Send the air bag wires back through your wheel. Keep the clock spring lined up in its proper position. It does have tabs that lock on to the back of the wheel, you can see there, so be sure those are aligned before pushing the wheel in the rest of the way.

Reconnect these two electrical connectors. Reinstall the 13mm bolt. You could use a ratchet here if you wanted to, but where we can get full rotation around the wheel, it's just as easy to use a breaker bar. Torque the steering wheel bolt to 45 foot-pounds. Again, be sure to ground yourself before touching an airbag. On the back of the airbag, you'll see that one connector is brown, and the other is black. This corresponds to the color of the connectors coming out of the harness. Snap those back into place, as well as the green connector for the horn, at the top.

Reinstall the airbag and horn into the center of the steering wheel. Put the key in the run position, and turn the wheel to 3 or 9 o'clock. Reinstall your two 10mm bolts. Be sure to get both bolts started before tightening either one down fully.

Recenter your wheel. Remove the key. Reinstall the upper and lower portions of the steering column cover. Pop the gear selector cover back into place. Reinstall your T-15 screws. The machine screw, being the silver one, is going to go into the center hole underneath, otherwise, the rest of the screws are the same. It helps to get the screw for the tilt lever started a couple of threads before you install it onto the car.

Make sure that these two plastic tabs line up with the two holes on the actual lever, and go ahead and tighten that down. Install the key, put it in the forward-most or run position before reconnecting your battery. This ensures that if you've worked on anything in or around the SRS or airbag system, if the airbag has become shorted in some way, or is going to deploy, it will do so with you outside the vehicle.

With the key on, go ahead and reconnect your negative battery terminal. Vehicle's got power, and the bag didn't deploy, so we know our repair was successful.

Thanks for tuning in. We hope this video helped you out. Next time you need parts for your car, please visit 1AAuto.com. Also check out our other helpful how-to and diagnosis videos.

How to Replace Airbag Clock Spring 2004-08 Dodge Ram 1500

step 1 :Disconnect the Battery

step 2 :Removing the Air Bag

step 3 :Removing the Steering Wheel

step 4 :Removing the Clock Spring

step 5 :Installing the Clock Spring

step 6 :Reinstalling the Steering Wheel

step 7 :Reinstalling the Airbag

step 8 :Reinstalling the Steering Column Cover

step 9 :Reconnecting the Negative Battery Cable

Tools needed

How to Replace Airbag Clock Spring 1997-98 Ford F-150

How to Replace Airbag Clock Spring 2004-08 Dodge Ram 1500

step 1 :Disconnect the Battery 1:30

step 2 :Removing the Air Bag 2:38

step 3 :Removing the Steering Wheel 4:58

step 4 :Removing the Clock Spring 6:15

step 5 :Installing the Clock Spring 7:47

step 6 :Reinstalling the Steering Wheel 10:48

step 7 :Reinstalling the Airbag 11:45

step 8 :Reinstalling the Steering Column Cover 13:08

step 9 :Reconnecting the Negative Battery Cable 14:44

Tools needed

How to Replace Airbag Clock Spring 1997-98 Ford F-150

step 1 :Disconnect the Battery

step 2 :Removing the Air Bag

step 3 :Removing the Steering Wheel

step 4 :Removing the Clock Spring

step 5 :Installing the Clock Spring

step 6 :Reinstalling the Steering Wheel

step 7 :Reinstalling the Airbag

step 8 :Reinstalling the Steering Column Cover

step 9 :Reconnecting the Negative Battery Cable