Need Help (air bag failure)

hugh fellows

New member
Jul 7, 1999
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Other than David Greenbergs note on the air bag failure I haven't seen
any info on the type air bag failure my Dad experienced last week. I
thought surely someone would have seen or heard of such an occurrence
and could shed some light on it. Has this never happened before really
??

Thanks,
Hugh Fellows jr.,
Auburn ,AL
 
Hugh,
>From what you pictured, it sound like you experienced a condition called
hot dogging the air bag. It usually caused by over inflation of the air
bag. If you by accident had left the air bag control in raise while
going down the road it cause the ends to push out. If the air hag had
never been turned 180 degrees is another although rare way to cause it.
Not the first time it has happened to a GMC and probably won't be the last.
- --
J.R. Wright
GMC GreatLakers
77 Eleganza II
Michigan

>
> Other than David Greenbergs note on the air bag failure I haven't seen
> any info on the type air bag failure my Dad experienced last week. I
> thought surely someone would have seen or heard of such an occurrence
> and could shed some light on it. Has this never happened before really
> ??
>
> Thanks,
> Hugh Fellows jr.,
> Auburn ,AL
 
John Wright,

I appreciate your post. However I can't understand how the over
inflation could cause the condition to occur that I described in my
original post. It would seem that over inflating would push the cones
out of both ends of the bag. In this occurrence the cone was left
completely up inside the airbag on one end after the tire had rubbed a
hole in the bag ( on the same end ) and deflated it. It appears that the
bag must have shifted all the way to that end (else wouldn't rub against
stock tire). However, this defies some laws of physics since the cone
system is specifically designed to make them self center between the
cones . The self centering occurs as the area of pressure application is
reduced on one end and increased on other as bag becomes un-centered.
This unbalancing of pressure forces tends to force the bag back to the
centered position . I could guess that the cone was just jammed into
the bag from the rapid deflation and that's why we found it inside the
cone. However, it was the rubbing that deflated the bag and so it had
to be un-centered before such deflation in order to rub. Still "need
help " on this one. John, can you or anyone else shed more light on
this for me ?

Thanks,
Hugh Fellows
Auburn, AL.