Clock spring and spiral cable trouble

Well you'd buy the one from Toyota or amiyama.com if they have it thecheap ones have worked reasonable for me I SE USA. It only takes about 25 minutes to change . So about equal to oil change. Depends on part cost I wouldn't pay 90 for the Toyoda . Personally . These things are too easy to make I don't know thee companies that are racing to bottom . There are ways to quickly sift thru the bs.

 

"clock spring" is just what some people colloquially call the spiral cable. They both mean the same part. It kinda looks like a clock spring, even though it's not a spring.

 

Isn't there a spiral spring along with spiral cable in housing ? You wind with finger to line up red line?

 

Not in any I ever took apart. Just a nice flat ribbon cable wound in a spiral.

Who would want a spring there? Isn't driving in a straight line hard enough already?

 

Just wait'll you price the same part for a gen 3 some day ....

 

Yeah I can replace it every year at that price like I say it's a 25-minute job with a 19 mm socket in your fingers oh and the bit for taking the steering pad off in a gen 3 pulling those stupid clips for sterring pad. But a quick job . So I'd buy the 40 or $50 one that somebody makes not the 22 dollar unit .

 

I don't understand this I haven't had to replace one on any of my cars yet I had to do a customer's car. And I'm pretty hard on two of my cars their work vehicles they kinda get treated bad . Throw crap in them extended oil services not so much washing. Mechanically solid good AC and wiper blades. And they just go forever. I can't kill them

 

In my gen 1, I may have acted early when I noticed a soft card-shuffling (or, well, card-bridging) sound when turning the wheel. I took the spiral cable out and sprayed Elmer's Slide-All on the cable, and put it back in.

 

And all this time I thought the digital clock in the car was powered by a spring in the steering wheel that you wound up by making three point turns.

 

A friend's Galaxie 500 had a clock that was powered by a spring. It had a pair of contacts that would close when the spring was close to wound down, and trigger a solenoid that wound it back up. It wasn't in the steering wheel though.

Sitting quietly in the car, you'd hear it occasionally: ... tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick GRNCH tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick ...

 

I get that ticking when sitting quietly within my own brain... Haven't exploded yet, but I'm only in my mid-50's so maybe I'm being impatient?

 

I doubt that there would be any sense in doing anything to a new one before installing it. Would only void the warranty and mess up whatever factory treatment was there.

Now, if a 15-year-old one with 200,000+ miles on it starts making a bridging-cards noise when you turn the wheel, Slide-All is the stuff I would try. (And did!)

 

At least that wasn't the worst case. It made you aware right away that you were going to smack the steering wheel if you crashed.

Probably the worst case is if the janky spiral cable does carry enough test current to keep the warning light off, but still can't inflate the airbag when you need it.