OK,apparently the clock spring in a truck is not the same as the springs I'm used to working with. I'm a clockmaker and if someone asked me about a clock spring I would think they're asking about the mainspring that you wind up to power the clock.
Basically a "set of wires on a reel" - 1995-up on the GM light trucks; the non-airbag models wouldn't have one as there's no other items on the GMT400's to require that type of electrical connection - just the horn, which uses the traditional spring-loaded contact onto the ring inside the column housing. So for the early trucks the clockspring is pretty simple, and they're about $25.
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For later stuff (GMT800's for example) that may be optioned with a bunch of steering wheel controls - radio buttons, driver info display buttons, etc. along with the airbag.. the clockspring is doing a lot of electrical connectivity work. Those are around $200..
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It's why whenever you're doing steering column work where the steering shaft is disconnected from the box, you *must* tie the steering wheel off so it can't freewheel, as you can break the clockspring otherwise.
Replacing the intermediate steering shaft and lower steering column bearing in my wife's '06 for the notorious steering clunking/rattling.. I found a bungee cord to the shifter works great!
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Richard
