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, Sun, 13 Oct 2013 04:24:06
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MOMO STEERING WHEEL INSTALLATION (long):
So my '91 came with an airbag. The wheel and bag were scratched, faded, dried out, horn buttons broken, and looked terrible. Plus, I believe the airbags were supposed to be replaced every 10 years or so, and it's been over 20, so I have never fully trusted them. So I have a couple of Saab accessory Momo wheels that I like to swap around. For this project, I chose a wheel from a 9000 Carlsson. You will need to swap in a non-airbag upper steering column and wiper/signal stalk frame.
First, to remove the airbag, make sure that the battery is disconnected. Second, MAKE SURE THAT THE BATTERY IS DISCONNECTED!!!! (You get the picture). There are two screws behind the airbag that will not come all the way out, but will loosen enough to pull the airbag. Loosen them with a torx extension on a ratchet and slowly pull off the airbag. There is one wire connected to the back that just pulls straight out. Set the airbag in a safe place METAL SIDE DOWN (so it does not become a projectile if it happens to go off). Use a large socket on an extension to back out the lock nut on the steering column spindle. Back it out to the ladt few threads, but do not remove the nut completely. Give the wheel a pull - tether totter-like one side at a time and the wheel will pull off back to the nut (this limits it from popping all the way off which could break your clock spring). With the wheel loose, just temove the nut and the wheel. With the wheel off, remove the wires from the center and pull the wheel out, then unscrew and remove the clock spring underneath it.
Next, remove the center console and lower kick panel. You will see the upper steering column exposed. It is held in place by four bolts - two on the frame facing the driver, and two underneath through the spokes. Then there is the spindle lock pin above the pedals and a pair of pedal springs on wings going out from either side of the column. Remove all of these and clip a few zip ties, and your upper steering column will pull right out. Now although the same steering wheel will still slide onto an airbag or non airbag column, the difference is the space for the clock spring. The non-airbag wheel has less space there and a horn connector ring - a metal ring that is necessary for the horn to work. The airbag column does not have this. You need to also swap the frame that hooks up the wiper and turn signal arms because that is specific to airbag or non airbag column. Once you have the old column out, put the new one in in reverse order. One thing to keep in mind is that the spindle lock pin (where the upper and lower steering columns connect) has to go through correctly. There is a groove in the upper column spindle that when lined up with the U-joint of the lower column allows the pin to pass through. Make sure this is lined up.
With the pin through, you can now connect the rest of the bolts and tighten them down, and your steering column is set.
Next, the more complicated part - the horn. The horn works by power and ground. The power comes from the horn wire that was formerly connected to the clock spring. You connect it from that wire to a male connector on the back of the recently installed steering column. So the column frame becomes the power source and the spindle becomes the ground. The steering wheel wedges onto the spindle, making the steering wheel hub the ground and a little spring-loaded tab on the back of the hub scrapes along the horn ring, and a wire goes up from that spring loaded tab through the center of the hub and connects to your horn button. So now the only thing keeping the connection from power to ground is the gap under the horn button. When it is pressed, the connection is made, the horn power is grounded, and the horn sounds. Not sure if that makes any sense, but just follow my directions and it should work...
So you will need to locate the two-wire connection that the clock spring was disconnected from. Both wires are black - you will want to use a blue T-connector to connect to wire number 1 (mine had a red sleeve):
The other end of this wire that you just put on should have a female blade connection spliced in (the wire itself only needs to be less than a foot long). The female blade connector should clip to the male connector on the bottom back side of the steering column frame (it can be hard to find - see where the yellow wire connects in the picture below- it is right underneath the wiper/signal stalk frame):
Now your power is set up. Next, make sure the steering wheel hub has a spring loaded tab in tact (there are two tabs - one does not move, the other is spring loaded - you should have both. The spring loaded one should have a wire coming up through the center of the hub):
Put the steering wheel on the spindle, tighten down the lock nut (not all the way - you will need to do a little fine-tuning later) and make sure that the spring loaded tab connects to the horn ring on the column:
Next, the complicated part - your steering wheel may have one of any number of horn contacts. Mine has two - one on each side of the wheel with wires going back to the center. Most sport and rally wheels have just a button in the center with a blade connector underneath it. If yours is the button style, it's easy - just connect the wire coming through the center to the blade connector on the bottom of the horn button. The metal on the horn button wedges onto the hub which is the ground, and as long as everything is connected right and touching, the horn will sound when the botton is pressed.
If you have multiple horn buttons like mine, they should all come down two wires - one connects to the hub (I used a circular connector and slid it between the wheel and hub and screwed through it for a ground), and the other splices to the wire that comes through the center of the hub.
With all this in place, turn on your car and test the horn. If it doesn't work, then check that the spring loaded tab is touching the horn ring - if not, you may need to either screw the spindle nut on tighter to bring them closer together, or replace that tab (ebay). Check also that you connected the wire t-connection to the horn power wire (you may have to try the other of the two wires - which ever gives a charge when the horn is pressed). If not that, trouble shoot horn buttons. If all else fails, I have only once had to install an external horn button on the dash because nothing else worked. But if you follow these directions, you should be golden. Go for a short drive and make sure that your wheel is on straight (I drive slowly on a deserted road without the spindle nut loose and pull over and readjust until I get it just right before tightening down the spindle nut all the way.
, Sun, 13 Oct 2013 04:24:06, Mon, 14 Oct 2013 10:04:29, Sun, 13 Oct 2013 18:26:28, Sun, 13 Oct 2013 19:52:25, Sun, 13 Oct 2013 16:51:58
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