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Airbags and crushed cherokees at Pick n Pull

Black1990jeep

NAXJA Forum User
Location
california
Hi all

I have been in contact with PicknPull regarding the crushed Cherokees in their yards. The manager called me back, and he told me the Cherokees are being crushed to keep people out of them because some of them are reported to have have air bags that can explode in the yard, these he explained are a mechanical verse an electrical actuator types.


The procedure the incoming cherokees go thru is the VIN is scanned and a third party software tells them if the vehicle has a dangerous airbag or not. If it comes up as having the bad kind of airbag, the roof is crushed to prevent access. Evidently, this data is not always correct, as even early Cherokees are being listed as having these defective air bag actuators. Ones I have seen crushed have no airbag i.e. the standard non airbag steering wheel like my 1990 has.

From what I have gathered, air bags did not come in Cherokees as standard until at least 1996. (at least that is what Yahoo answers says)

DOES ANYONE KNOW THE DATE RANGE FOR AIRBAGS?

DOES ANYONE KNOW IF AIRBAGS WERE AN OPTION IN PRE 1996 CHEROKEES?

The manager at Pick n Pull wants to get to the bottom of this, he used to have a Cherokee, and it sounds like he wants to make as many parts available to us as possible. He told me he was going to research it more, and I told him I would link him to this website post for more information.
So if anyone can provide info on airbags, years of air bags, and if they were an option, that will be helpful to us all.


Thank You


PS here is link to my original post

https://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1154866
 
Woah now, lets make sure we get the dates right on mechanical versus electrical. Lets not crush ALL the ones with airbags if some are safe.
 
Here is a youtube video on removing the airbag, looks easy ...
Doing this sure beats crushing the roof.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VxYHC6oX6eQ

Once removed, the jeep is safe.

the air bag equiped jeeps can be identified by the steering wheel type. non airbag wheels look much different

Note I have found identical looking airbag unit, (un exploded) with out the padded wheel cover laying on the ground at a yard, evidently someone had safely removed it.
 
Also note in the above link, mechanical airbag XJs do NOT have an airbag light! So if there is an air bag light on post 95 later XJs, it is an electric activated air bag. pre 1995 XJs evidently have NO airbag, as evidenced by the different steering wheel.

Thus only 95 and 96 appear to have the mechanical type airbag, which is the concern at the yards, and these can be easily be removed, or disarmed.

Can someone confirm this, perhaps via the Factory Service Manual FSM ?
 
I own both a '95 and a '96. These are the two years with mechanical airbags. Starting in '97 the airbags became electrically activated.

Disabling them is simple. There is a bolt in the top of the airbag to be backed off. There is a plastic cover over it for cosmetic purposes. It should not take long at all to pop off the cover and back out the bolt. The vehicle would then be as safe as any other vehicle with an airbag.
 
I own both a '95 and a '96. These are the two years with mechanical airbags. Starting in '97 the airbags became electrically activated.

Disabling them is simple. There is a bolt in the top of the airbag to be backed off. There is a plastic cover over it for cosmetic purposes. It should not take long at all to pop off the cover and back out the bolt. The vehicle would then be as safe as any other vehicle with an airbag.

Anak..

Thank you for the information!

This will be useful for the Pick n Pull Manager. Would you happen to have photos of the cover and or the disarming bolt or perhaps or perhaps an image of the FSM showing the disarming procedure that you can post? I own a 1990 FSM.

Id like to give the Pick n Pull manager the most information possible to make it easy for him to find alternatives to crushing the roof. He has been most receptive to my request. I hope we can help assist him in making a procedural change at his yards (he manages a wide region of yards) that is both safe for his employees and customers, while allowing the customers to access the widest range of Cherokee parts!

Thanks again!
 
If you do a Googe Image search for 1996 Airbag Bolt you will see some pictures that show what and where the bolt is, but if you don't know what you are looking at you might not recognize them. I am using a tablet at the moment and I can't figure out how to get it to show and copy an image location. If I get time later today I will go get some pictures out of my '96, as well as the size of socket needed to back off the bolt.
 
The XJs in question are 1995 and 1996 MY. The airbag visually looks similar to 1993-1995 Grand Cherokees, but is NOT the same.

The mechanical airbag is found ONLY on the 1995 and 1996 MY Jeep Cherokee (not Grand).

The mechanical airbag is "armed" with a bolt at the top of the center section of the steering wheel, there is a small plastic cover that pops off to reveal the airbag arming bolt. This bolt unscrews vertically toward the 12 oclock position. Once the bolt is completely unscrewed, about 2-3 inches, and has bottom out in the threads, the airbag is disarmed.

The airbag can then be removed with the 4 nuts located on the backside of the airbag like is typical.

The arming bolt pushes down on a spring-flap, this compresses the spring, the end of the bolt is rounded, if a big enough impact occurs the bolt shifts off the spring flap and allows the spring to extend, initiating the airbag deployment.

This happens at any time, without electrical power to the vehicle.
 
Official Chrysler Link for airbag disable, 1995 and 1996 mechanical XJ airbags...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AxjJgAA2vo

at the 8 minute mark they show the disable screw and how to disarm it. This should take less time than crushing the roof!

at near 12 minute they go into how to remove the airbag assembly if you so desire, but it is not necessary for safety if the disarming screw is backed out, as the bag is already made safe and is no more dangerous than any of the other electric operated airbags when the battery is removed.

Perhaps the wrecking yard can have the disable screw turned out, thus rendering the airbag safe as any of the electric operated bags when the battery is disconnected? Then there will be no reason to crush the roof.
 
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