Steering Wheel Upgrade How-To

[rlith]

Well, a lot of us who have 95-97 trucks just don't like our steering wheels. Personally I prefer the 98-current wheels. Unfortunatly very little if anything across any of the s10/blazer boards have covered anything outside of putting on an aftermarket grant steering wheel. Some of these can be nice but unfortunatly it's illegal to remove an airbag...(yeah I know some of you don't care). Anyway

As I said, not much has been covered in regards to putting a 98+ steering wheel on a 95-97 airbag equipped truck.. Well, I went and did it!!! Yes folks it works fine! I even stopped by Baierl Chevrolet and had my tech meter and scan the system to make sure the airbag is working correctly!!! Everything is A.O.K!


So here we have the 98+ Steering Wheel and airbag system...



Here is the 95-97 Steering Wheel and Airbag..



And here is the 98+ Steering Wheel and Airbag in my 95 Blazer



On a side note. This particular steering wheel has the radio controls built into it. After some initial testing I have figured out how to make it work with my existing head unit. (Pioneer) and will be wiring it this weekend. Granted, I will have limited functionality compared to the regular remote, but what the hell, if I can adjust volume and mute,, power, and what not, I'll be happy. I will be using my spare remote and extending the IR led into a base holder in the cowling behind the wheel. There is boat loads of room inside those steering wheels.. So for those wanting to upgrade, take heart, it's easily done!

[dernoma]

can u take notes when u do the wiring...I have a p9300 and would love to have volume on my steering wheel (besides the odd remote it comes with) and good job on the swap I will do this very soon as well. And also is there a huge diff between the interior colors hard to tell by picture but I know i have the same color int you do

[rlith]

Same colours... I just put clear polishing stuff on there to make it shiny.. I've not often seen the wheels with the radio controls... Was kind of a fluke on my part...There isn't any difference in the steering wheels themselves... It's the back cover that holds the controls (so you should be able to get the back cover with the controls from the dealer, I'll see if I can track down a part number next week). What I will do is simply tie the individual switch to the positive contact of the funtion on the remote pad with 20-22 gauge wire. I will then desolder the led at the front of the remote and put it in a holder. Drill the cover for the holder. Since the steering wheel is invariably straight and I won't be changing volume, mute, et-al while I'm turning, it shouldn't be an issue. I'll just pop the airbag out and change the battery when needed. (About once a year or so)..