I dunno about ford but doorman does list clocksprings.

 

The price $132 is in Canadian dollars. We're at 93c US as of now. Wish it would have been when we had 1.15$ /US dollar.

 

Well, I never heard of the term "clock spring" relating to this part until I was on this forum and I worked in Ford parts for a few years and as a Ford mechanic until 2001. I might have heard of "F3UZ14A664B .. CONTROL ASSY, AIR BAG" once or twice though ...

To me the clock spring was for the older cars that had actual swept hand clocks in the dash that used that type of contact switch for power.

 

That's what I think as well, and this is also the place where I first heard of it. I still haven't seen one yet, so I'm just imagining what it looks like.

I've always seen the electrical connections between the steering wheel and column as some spring-loaded finger contacts in the wheel that rub against rings in the column. I guess you need something that makes a much more reliable constant contact to activate the air bag, which is probably why they use a spiral spring device, like the main spring or regulator spring in old wind-up clocks. (How many people under 30 know what those are?)

Come to think of it, the clock in my 69 Mach uses a slightly different kind of main spring; that's the one that gets "kicked" by an electromagnet to wind it, then as it runs down, it has a contact that connects the EM to kick it again. It's been a while since I took it apart, but I seem to recall that spring being a long tubular, narrow diameter coil spring, not a spiral spring.

 

I spoke to my father in law, who is 80 and still can fix a car quicker than ****, the words clock spring come from the contacts off old 40s-50s cars when they started to put the horn button on the steering wheel. It was a spring like in a clock, that was coiled a lil. It would tighten if the steering wheel was turned one way, and uncoil turned the other way.

 

I just replaced my clockspring on my 93 aerostar. The manual wasn't the most accurate. The part number written on mine was F39A-14A664-CC. From my local salvage yard I got one from another 93 aerostar and the part number was slightly different ....F39A-14A664-CB and it worked just fine.

 

While this was an old post, perhaps I can help a bit with the history of this name. I have been a locksmith since 1977 and when airbags got stuffed into steering wheels it was deturmined that the slip rings they usually use to have electrical connections on the steering wheel were not reliable enough for a device that has to be reliable.

The solution was to have the conductors on a thin plastic film that was wound in a loose sprial that could coil and uncoil when the steering wheel was turned.

I went through training to learn about servicing locks on cars equipped with airbags shortly after their introduction and the term "clock spring" is what was used at all the training I have been to since. It might be the term GM uses to describe the part.

GM is the application where a locksmith would most likely run into the need to remove the "clock spring" as that was the last make to stuff the ignition lock retainer behind the steering wheel, most makes have changed over to a design where the steering wheel is left in place when servicing the ignition lock cylinder.

If anyone does have to remove a "clock spring" several things you need to be careful with. First, you must be careful with the timing of the unit. If the steering wheel is turned to the right and the "clock spring" is would to the left you will kill it and potentially blow the airbag. It needs to have enough slack so the wheel can turn lock to lock.

Next thing you really need to be careful with is when you are disconnecting or reconnecting any airbag component, the plugs have little locking clips that must be replaced. Also you are never supposed to splice any air bag wire.