I'm pulling the dash to replace the heater core. I sure could use some info on how to safely de-activate/remove the passenger side airbag. If you have any other pearls of wisdom to pass along I'll be happy to hear them, as this is my first dash pull on this truck.

Thanks in advance.

'98 F150 4X4 Ext. Cab
4.6L, A/C
118K and runnin' strong

 

Hitting a brick wall will get that airbag out of the dash...

 

Dang it IKE, you took my idea. But then again it might not go off at all. There's a Ford around my home town that runs around with lemons all over it because the airbags failed to deploy even when they should of and Ford refused all knowledge of it happening.

Sorry for no help there primecut36, I have never had to do that and half way afraid of touching one.

 

if it was driver side i could help but on the passenger i dont know. All i can saw is headlights on battery off. That should stop an accidental deployment, as for the removal, i just dont know. Sorry.

And for the more civil approach to the brick wall thing, baseball bat works just a well and less damage to engine etc.

 

primecut36

The Chilton manual has the procedure to remove the dash to fix the core. It is a long procedure. You might read it before begining. Let us know how you did, good luck.

Pete

 

Primecut36,

I am with peterbilt on this one. If you are asking for the procedure for removing the airbag than you surely have not read the manual. I have replaced 2 cores on mine, but I used the book. It involves removing the glove box. If you just start removing nuts and bolts you may end up doing a hack job on the dash.

Regards

Jean Marc Chartier

 

To safely remove the passenger airbag , you first of all must disconnect the batery. If you have a key for the airbag , leave it ON. After disconnecting the battery , turn the headlights on for 10 minutes to drain any residual power in the system. Then, you may safely remove the airbag.

Good luck.

Sty

 

Always keep the airbag pointed in a safe direction!

 

To ignite the air bag there are 2 triggers.

If I recall what Jeff posted correctly, the neg side of the air bag trigger is in the front bumper, and the pos side is via the PCM.

He said that with or without the battery connected on the truck, you cannot get the airbag to ignite unless you have G force decelleration, and the front bumper being pushed in.

Kid Triton is his S/N if you want to look up the post on it to make sure.

Steve

 

Older models use two Air Bag sensors in the front of the truck and a safing sensor which is internal to the Air Bag Diagnostic Monitor. At least two sensors, one Air bag and the safing sensor, must close to deploy the Air bags. It has a backup power supply. To deplete the backup disconnect the battery and wait for one minute.

The newer models use a Restraints control module (RCM). RCM includes a backup power supply. This feature provides sufficient backup power to deploy the air bags in the event that the ignition circuit is damaged in a collision before the safing and air bag sensors determine that an air bag deployment is required. The backup power supply will deplete its stored energy approximately one minute after the battery ground cable is disconnected.

I believe that 98 was the last year for the Air Bag Diagnostic Monitor. Regardless of the year the procedure for depleting the power supply is the same.


JMC

 

I just replaced the core on my 97 f-150 flareside. Disconnect neg. battery cable first, then pos. and turn on headlights. Then I took out glovebox, Then disconnect elect connector behind passenger side kick panel and disconnected ground wire that is behind same panel. Next carefully took off the oval cover located on my dash, Has like 6 or 8 clips all around it. Then disconnected the elect. connector thats under it, Next there are 3 bolts that holds the air bag. one on top you take out from the oval opening, and the other 2 from the glovebox opening. Then you just work it around from the top opening and the glovebox opening to remove it . Carry it with the front of the bag away from your body in case of deployment. Thats how I got mine out, Hope this helps.