I'm getting ready to tackle the replacement of my heater core and also fix the blender door. I have read earlier post saying you will want to disable the airbag from deploying by disconnecting the battery and waiting 6 hours.

Is that all there is to it? Is there a fuse in the circuit? I really want to reduce my chances of setting off the airbags.
The dash tear down seems quite involved so I will be taking my time to get it apart and back.

Thanks,

97 F150 XLT. Trinitron V8.

 

Yes, disconnecting the battery but the 6 hr time is a bit excessive.
Normally the airbag system has a large value capacitor to ensure the system works in an accident situation that might tear the battery circuit apart upon impact.
The cap then supplies enough power for deployment.
It only takes about 30 min. for this cap to discharge.
Note that when you restart the engine and for awhile after that, it may not run as you last felt it did because the PCM has to relearn your driving and rebuild all the tables from the reboot starting point.

 

Even 30 minutes is excessive.

The factory service manual says to wat one minute (yeah, 60 seconds) for the backup power supply in the SRS module to deplete after disconnecting the battery.

Steve

 

Steve is right. 60 seconds is all that is needed. To remove the instrument panel requires disconnecting the battery so once that is done one minute later you are good to go on the air bags. When handling the bags be sure to point it away from your body so if it blows it will not hit you. Also set it on a bench with the bag point up. I would highly recommend using a shop manual for this job. It will provide the proper procedure and save you at least 6 hours.

Regards

Jean Marc Chartier