link9a

I wish my parts arrived so I can discuss that with you thank you for your update 👍

Andy H

It looks like it's 60mm (can't get my hands on my gauge, but hopefully the pic helps).




I'm following along and working on a budget/simple upgrade to my C5. MetalMan2 got the upper shaft to me (great guy to work with) and I purchased a Pontiac G5 wheel and Chevy Cobalt bag. I also purchased a single stage Express van bag, which has yet to arrive.

Here's the look of the Cobalt bag on the G5 wheel:

link9a

[QUOTE=Andy H;1605263097]It looks like it's 60mm (can't get my hands on my gauge, but hopefully the pic helps).




I'm following along and working on a budget/simple upgrade to my C5. MetalMan2 got the upper shaft to me (great guy to work with) and I purchased a Pontiac G5 wheel and Chevy Cobalt bag. I also purchased a single stage Express van bag, which has yet to arrive.

Here's the look of the Cobalt bag on the G5 wheel:


Nice but what are you going to do with C6 steering wheel ? Another thing I guess you have the airbag for Express van bag before right ? Thank for logo size

Andy H

As far as I can tell reading other posts on this and other forums, the early 2006+ Corvette C6 steering wheels were somewhat generic and used under different part numbers on other GM vehicles.

I chose the Pontiac G5 wheel because it’s a fraction of the cost of its Corvette cousin (less than $60 to the door from eBay) and there’s a good chance that once I get the factory parts working in the C5, I’ll transfer them to a more exciting wheel like a Revesol wheel.

Yes, the Express bag was purchased after reviewing other posts and the suggested compatibility for maintaining single stage operations on the C5. I’m still waiting for it to arrive but now uncertain of whether it will work as intended given what MetalMan2 has reported.

The bag cost more than the steering wheel and I have 30 days to return it. If anyone has any ideas on how I might proceed in a way that benefits the greater good of the members who might follow in our footsteps, I’d be happy to hear it. The bag was listed as being for a 2004-2006 Chevrolet Express.

link9a

All right good to know. . by the way the clock spring 26129609 C6 as l knew its have 5 harness two of them (2 harness )for airbag so which harness go to single stage airbag ? And what about the other harness any info ?

Andy H

I understand this to be the case. My chosen approach involves keeping the C5 clockspring and single stage airbag function/wiring. I plan to interface to the single connector on the Express (or other) airbag I place into the Cobalt airbag enclosure. I will give up wheel controls. That’s why I chose a wheel with limited wheel controls/buttons. I’d have purchased a wheel with no controls (except horn, of course) if I could have found one at a reasonable price.

To summarize, I’m keeping the C5 clockspring to maintain single connector config for the airbag function. In exchange, I give up steering wheel controls. I’m okay with that (at least for now).

link9a

. So that mean whatever l buy from clock spring to steering wheel controls they never work together with airbag ? So l lose good money 😕

Andy H

I have not yet seen a C6 wheel in a C5 with both an operational dual stage airbag and wheel controls from the C6. That doesn’t mean it hasn’t or can’t be done. Only that I have yet to see it.

Hopefully someone who knows more about using the C6 clockspring in the C5 will jump in here and correct or otherwise enlighten me. I’d love to see it done.

link9a

. l hop so

MetalMan2

As mentioned previously, I'm intending to make C6 clock spring work:
This is another more detailed post I made on the topic: https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...post1605159767

My gut feeling is that the C6 clock spring interface to single stage airbag has been waaayyyyy over-thought. In my mind it should just be a matter of swapping the end connectors for one set of airbag wires (on C6 clock spring). We shall see. Unfortunately my steering wheel progress is hampered by my drivetrain project...

link9a

Alright so today after hours for fighting with the fitting airbag the result it's look good

That plate it's make the airbag more thicker you can take it out but for me l decided to leave it there



What you think 😁

Andy H

I think the fitment looks great. Nice job.

Sorry if I'm asking the obvious, but what are you communicating in the first image in the last post?

Also, what donor airbag did you use to replace that in the Cobalt enclosure? Do you have a part number, or donor vehicle make, model, year(s)?

link9a

the airbag from 2007 express Van . if you look at the first picture the airbag have plate in the bottom that case the problem when you put the airbag back to the steering wheel doesn't fit perfect because too thick you can remove it easy but l decided to try to trim around to keep it ...and the cover yes it's cobalt it's 100% same as C6 cover except the logo ...and lam working with GM technical to find out if we can connect the steering wheel controls direct to aftermarket radio without clock spring c6 .. if you have any question let me know 👍

MetalMan2

Your end result is pretty good! Gives me hope that mine can probably look better, too. I didn't put very much time into mine yet, though it looks like some of the ideas I had to improve mine worked out well for you.

In other news, yesterday I got a shipping notification with tracking number for the new C6 airbag from GM! In case anybody else wants to try ordering one, this is where I bought it: https://www.autopartsprime.com/gm/ai...el/oe-20981759
Keep in mind that I ordered it on May 23, so it took 3 weeks to ship. And while I have a tracking #, the tracking isn't live yet. [still hasn't shipped as of 6/16]

I don't understand how this is possible or how GM can help, but interested to hear the result nonetheless.

I have another idea for making steering wheel controls, steering wheel button illumination, and horn all work with a C6 steering wheel while using a C5 clock spring. It's a little bit complicated so I'll try to describe it adequately:

• C6 steering wheel with controls (no paddle shifters) clock spring has 5 wires:
  • Horn signal
  • Ground
  • Button Illumination
  • 12v+
  • Steering wheel control signal
  • Could also interface a C6 steering wheel with paddle shifters, which would be a 6th wire
• C5 steering wheel clock spring I believe has 2 wires:
  • Horn signal
  • either Ground or +12V for horn (doesn't really matter for this conversation)
• I would tweak the wires going to the C5 clock spring so that there is +12V and Ground going to the steering wheel
• Build up 2 separate microcontrollers with wireless transceivers, like Arduino:
  1. In the steering wheel, the +12V/GND would provide power to the microcontroller and button illumination. The steering wheel control wire and horn wire(s) would be inputs to the microcontroller. There would be some circuitry to make this all work but it would be pretty minimal I think.
  2. On the car side, the microcontroller would receive wireless steering wheel and horn signals. There would be additional circuitry to interface with the car's horn, and aftermarket head unit steering wheel controls.
  • For button illumination, I don't know what voltage they take but I have 2 ideas:
    • Keep it simple and have buttons illuminated all the time
    • Run an illumination wire from an interior light/button to the car-side microcontroller, and send that signal to the steering wheel-side microcontroller. Then that signal would control lighting for the steering wheel buttons to match the rest of the interior lights. Could possibly even include dimming with use of a PWM output from the microcontroller.
• This device would likely be cheaper than a C6 clock spring, and could end up being less work than wiring in a C6 CS. What I don't know is if there would be space behind the single stage airbag to fit the electronics.

For reference, my C5 Z06 actually has 2 different Arduinos in it right now. One of those is for a steering wheel control emulator device/**** that goes in the Active Handling plate, and is kind of similar to the car-side device I described above.

link9a

This is the right way to finish it

link9a

Question... which interface we need to use if ​​we like to hook up the steering wheel controls through clock spring C6 ? l have C6 clock spring for control but ldon't know how to gave power to make test .. maybe if we run it separate and we put it somewhere under dashboard so that way we have steering control working without affect c5 airbag ? But still the problem is how we run the wires through c5 clock spring !!! l think you're idea to make the volume control wireless good idea and yes it's a little complicated but I think it will be work so if you decided to do it let me know so I can follow you because I'm not smart enough with the wires ... let me know which one you going to decided ..

MetalMan2

I think what you're saying is that the top picture is the right way? Where you moved the holes up quite a bit on the back plate, and also adjusted the big center hole.

If I understand your question right, you can probably use a PAC interface like this that will work for most aftermarket head units: https://www.c6performance.net/catalo...-p-497196.html
Beyond that I don't know. With my Joying head unit I could probably hook the C6 clock spring steering wheel control wire directly to the head unit. Pressing different buttons only changes what resistance is put out on the steering wheel wire.

The C5 clock spring still has 1-2 wires running through it for the horn. So my thought is to "hijack" the horn wire(s) and convert that wire to a power wire for the microcontroller. The horn would still work after the conversion, of course.

link9a

Not the first picture.. the second one it's the right one thanks for your answer

MetalMan2

Interesting, so how does it look when installed as shown in that second picture? I thought the the pictures you shared with airbag installed on wheel were with the airbag modified as in the first picture.

I just put in a little bit more time on my airbag situation. I tried shoving the single-stage airbag down in the cover, which should push the cover up on the steering wheel. Also I removed the plate you mentioned... I don't think this actually makes the single stage airbag thicker, because the "bomb" part of the airbag still squeezes against the airbag fabric (with or without the plate).

Anyways, mine looks a little bit better with those changes, but still not as good as I want:





Also, I started working on the wireless interface for using C6 steering wheel controls through the C5 clock spring:

• C6 steering wheel info:
  • Steering wheel control buttons: pressing a button causes there to be a resistance (below) between the blue wire and purple wire (+12V). It is open circuit (infinite resistance) when no buttons are pressed.
    • Volume Up: 1.270 kOhms
    • Volume Down: 1.564 kOhms
    • Track Up: 1.912 kOhms
    • Track Down: 2.39 kOhms
    • 1-6 Button: 3.10 kOhms
  • The Horn wire (brown) shorts to ground (black wire) when the horn is pressed.
• Ordered "RF Nano" Arduino boards which are integrated Arduino Nano with nRF24L01 wireless transceivers.
  • Started working on Arduino code and wiring schematics.
• C5 clock spring only has 2 wires for airbag. The horn switch in the steering wheel uses the steering wheel frame as a ground, and there's a "slip ring" arrangement behind the steering wheel that provides a single wire for the horn.
• Things still needed to figure out:
  • C5 interior illumination voltage range from dimming (since I'd like to hook up to an interior light)
  • C6 steering wheel button backlight voltage

link9a

Don't forget to take the picture for every step with that install for steering wheel controls .. 👍
lwill past the picture for that airbag ..