Eliminating the Airbag
 

I purchased an 85-87 T/A steering wheel for my car and want to completely eliminate the SIR system. I have heard there is a DERM box that controls the light and airbag system. I want to remove this as well. Any tips? Where is the DERM located? Anything to watch out for?

Re: Eliminating the Airbag
 

The derm is under the dash on the passengers side. its easy enough to just pop out the bulb.btw this should be in the electrical section.

Re: Eliminating the Airbag
 

Just for something else to consider ;

In the state in which I live , part of the safety check for the inspection sticker is for ALL manufacturer supplied safety devices to be present and functional . Granted , most folks giving stickers would have no clue what year the third gen got airbags , but it is right there on the computer checklist when they enter your car (mine's an 89 , so no airbag comes up on his checklist) . Were you to try to sticker that car here , and the guy noticed the checklist specifies an airbag and there is none in the car , he would reject it ....

That , of course , is small potatoes next to my following thought ;

God forbid there was ever a bad accident involving that car , and the insurance company's "claims adjuster" noticed the lack of airbag , it would give them an opening to weasel out of paying the accident claim cause you tampered with the safety equipment . Think these kinds of things don't happen ? Just remember , after an accident an insurance company AIN'T your friend , be it yours or the company of some other dolt who runs into your car , the first thing they try to do is "adjust" (DOWN) their liability for having to pay out by using every slimy trick in the book . And hell ya , a purposefully circumvented airbag would be just the thing Mr. insurance man would LOVE to find as he would use that to save his company the $$$ of settling the claim .

Were it me , I'd leave the bag right where it is , and if it's that much of a problem , sell it to someone who don't care whether it has a bag or not and buy one 1989 or earlier without a bag from the factory ...

PS , will a non airbag steering wheel even fit onto the steering column that's supposed to have the airbag wheel ?

Re: Eliminating the Airbag
 

Inspection laws vay by state, so check with yours before removing the airbag. Here in PA, the airbag is not part of the inspection, so it's not required to be there. The airbag was blown in my camaro when I got it as the PO wrecked it. I never replace the bag and have never had a problem. I did call several inspection stations to verify before I replaced the steering wheel. You can use an aftermarket wheel adapter for the earlier year camaros/firebirds. I had to trim an 1/8" off the cover plate so it didn't run the column cover. I have a grant wheel in mine.

Re: Eliminating the Airbag
 

I have turned an 89 iroc (non airbag) into a 90 iroc (with airbag). I also changed the dash to the 90-92 gauges. The 730 ecm (90-92) has a seperate yellow harness that plugs into it beside the engine harness connector. All the air bag wiring has yellow as its dominant color but has other color wires. There is 3 small black boxes involved in the system. They are about 2x2x2 and one is mounted in the hood latch area, another at the front of the console area by the heater floor duct and the third is under the power window switches on the trans tunnel under the console. Back then I was driving a lot going to college and was road racing a lot so I wanted the air bags to keep me alive while beating my arch rival dodge. I installed the complete air bag column in place of the 89 and older column without any real problems. There is a clock spring built in the air bag column making it a different column but they both bolt in. I had to use a 90-92 dash carrier since those are different as well as the dash harnesses, engine harnesses etc. The only stock harness on my 89 iroc right now in the a/c harness and door lock/ window harness. All other wiring is from 91-92 Z28s and the engine harness is from a 91 trans am. The battery is on the different side on the t/a so I had to wire around that. There are magnetic balls in the 3 black boxes and two of the three have to make for the air bag to deploy. Hope this helps and init4fun is right. They will find anyway to keep your money in an accident so be carefull. In my case I don't like the air bag but I was a big enough idiot 20 plus years ago to road race 40 miles three times a week at midnight when we were off work and I was bearly smart enough to at least add the latest technology at that time which was air bags. I found a 91 Z totalled and got most of the parts from that donor car. I have never had a wreck but I can state that a third gen slightly modified can reach the 150 mark and a modified ZR-1 can flirt with 195.