Disassembling Airbag Passenger Side

Hey guys, taking apart my 1999 Tacoma dashboard to get to the windshield vent and am a little leery of disconnecting the airbag system. Any tips?

edit: I have disconnected both battery terminals.

 

This is what the interior looks like at the moment, only thing left to take the hunk of dash out is the airbag area.

 

A disconnect battery is all you need to do. Tip: put screws back where they come from will aid in reassembling.

 

With the battery disconnected for a while you are good to go, and frankly you can remove them with it connected but I wouldn't suggest it, certainly done it 100 times on various cars though.

 

At least its not a Takata.....those can spontaneously go off with no power source...

all you with 2000 and later should be leery and run your vin thru NHTSA to see if its recalled

 

Lol, I usually stick by that rule but this time I didn’t and I might live to regret it

 

It's particularly fun when you pull the dash out then get sidetracked on other projects then in a month..."this goes where?". BTDT.

 

I’m literally having that problem right now. Put everything back together but the car won’t start. I hear the ignition but nothing is turning over. Not sure what is unplugged and if I’m screwed or not

 

Clutch pedal switch?

 

Figured it out! Battery terminals were corroded to oblivion, were not remaining energized when key was cycling. Just switched out the terminals and voila!
And to think that I would have kept taking apart the dash over and over trying to figure it out

 

Well, nice it's an easy fix, removing the dash isn't very fun...