As most of you may have experienced, the Gen 1 steering wheel seems to rot after some time, it decomposes at the most grabbed spot like 12 o'clock. I purchased a used steering wheel from Ebay that was in top condition, It actually was nearly mint. I'd like to swap out my old one for this new one and switch over the airbag, but I'm having a hard time finding instructions. Any leads would help. Thanks
First off, disconnect your 12v negative so no power goes to the airbag. Most air bags are just held on by 2 bolts on the underside of the wheel. See if you can find them. Remove them and the airbag should come off, disconnect the wires. You'll need a tire iron type tool to remove the nut holding the steering wheel, it's one of the 4 sizes on the tire iron tool. This is the easiest tool to use as the nut is on there pretty tight. There should be lots of YouTube videos available for reference, they are all very similar....
The screws holding the Gen 1 air bag in place go in from the two sides. There are little panels in the plastic backing cover of the wheel that you can pop out to access the screws. They have hex or Torx heads IIRC. As you back the screws out, there are little clips formed into the wheel cover that will hold them by the heads when they come loose from the airbag, so they will be right in position when you're ready to reinstall it. All this stuff is in the repair manual, of course. If I remember right, Metro Toyota had a nice condensed version, down to a page or so, that used to come in the cruise-control retrofit kit that they sold. If you can find that (maybe on their web site), you'll be all set. -Chap
