The previous owner of a 96 fire I'm working on put a hole in the steering wheel right where the air bag comes out. I was checking to see if it was possible to just replace the cover (doesn't seem that way, oh well) and when I removed it a little spring with wires in it came out of the hole in the pictures on the left. Is this the clockspring? Is it for the horn or the airbag? What does it do? I am deathly afraid of this airbag going off accidentaly so if someone could tell me what that is for and exactly how it goes back in I would be very grateful. I know I shouldn't be messing with the airbag, really was not my intention to, I thought it was just a plastic cover. I will just tell my friend who's buying it why I'm not gonna fix the hole lol.

Pics:











Also, any ideas on how to maybe fix this without replacing? ^^^

Idk if they make patch kits or anything like that, just curious. Thanks!

That wire is for the horn. But if you are messing with the airbag, ALWAYS unhook the battery and wait at least 10 minutes before messing with anything around the airbag.

The clockspring is the item with the yellow covered wire you see in your pics.

To replace the horn wire, look closely at the end of the wire you removed. It should have a plastic tube on it with a little peg sticking out to the side. If you look in the hole it came out of, there is a slot that the peg fits in. Down farther in the hole you will see that the slot rotates around the hole. To get the wire beck in place, line up the peg and the slot, gently push the wire in and then turn it so that the peg follows the slot.

Chris wrote:That wire is for the horn. But if you are messing with the airbag, ALWAYS unhook the battery and wait at least 10 minutes before messing with anything around the airbag.

The clockspring is the item with the yellow covered wire you see in your pics.

To replace the horn wire, look closely at the end of the wire you removed. It should have a plastic tube on it with a little peg sticking out to the side. If you look in the hole it came out of, there is a slot that the peg fits in. Down farther in the hole you will see that the slot rotates around the hole. To get the wire back in place, line up the peg and the slot, gently push the wire in and then turn it so that the peg follows the slot.

Battery always gets unhooked when I work on anything electrical in the car, better safe than sorry.

And thank you for your help! I thought it was for the horn but really wanted a second opinion before I put it back in there.