This is on my wish list, too! Definitely will use this as a reference when it's time.
I've been scoping out all the late 90s/early 00s Yukons and Escalades to get a wood grain steering wheel... So far, no such luck.
Did you just undo the ground on the battery before messing with the airbag?

As far as Dire Straits..I would have went with "So Far Away" for my guess. :p

This is one of the first things I did to my 04 when I got it home :D

For what it's worth, ANY early 2000's model GM truck with the same style and shape steering wheel will work, and if the wheel is in rough shape but has good controls and your steering wheel is in good shape, you can actually gut the controls and steering wheel rear cover and transfer it all over to your good steering wheel ;)

Im actually curious about this, i know some Trailblazers had wheel controls for CC and audio on the wheel in 2000-'01, would it be possible to retrofit a 1999 Blazer/Trailblazer with a wheel from one of those?

To answer your question, yes, I believe so. You can get the controls in any of the models that are heavily optioned. Envoy and Bravada come to mind with them standard. I'm also under the assumption that they are plug and play in Blazers or Crew Cab S10 since they shared the same wiring harness. If you grab the controls get the clock spring as well.

another point, where do i find a clockspring for an S10? the usual suspects i look for parts on dont have them it seems (rockauto, Advance, etc.)

My clockspring broke in my 2000 Blazer with steering wheel controls, and I couldn't find a new one anywhere. I'm pretty sure nobody makes it any more. I ended up changing the steering wheel to one without the controls or an airbag, since they didn't work anyway.

BTW, my Blazer is driven off-road 99% of the time. I wouldn't recommend getting rid of the airbag on anything that's primarily street-driven.

I used a 2004 Trailblazer clock spring that I bought off eBay.

IIRC, the airbag plugs - there are two of them on the Trailblazer clock spring - were different than the receptacle on the back of the Jimmy's airbag module. Some DMM measurements revealed that the two plugs on the clock spring are wired in parallel with each other (probably as an added safety feature in case one of the clock spring traces opens up, so I removed the plugs, soldered the two cables together, and connected them into the single connector that I removed from the Jimmy's original clock spring.

Hope this helps!

Ok as i am electrically challenged i would like to make my pioneer stereo work with the steering wheel controls i do have said steering wheel but need to figure out what to cut and splice any advice can someone do it at best buy or a stereo shop or can i just buy a plug to make them work ANY ADVICE IS GREATLY APPRECIATED
8

You need an adapter (more like an interface) to make them work. It comes with instructions for hookup and "programming". This assumes that your vehicle came with steering wheel controls and already has all the correct wiring in the steering column.

Adapter
 

Thank You