Drivers air bag lite comes on, flashes 19 times, replaced the clock spring with a new one.
Lite went out, now all seems well.
I noticed what looks like dried up silicon grease on the old one
Seems that i remember reading cleaning this up restores its operation.
Did an ohms check on both of the air bag connectors, it went to zero.
Everything else worked , is the old part still operational?
I just figured that the ribbon broke, is there a way other than installing it to know?

 

Toss the old one. Very common issue on these cars from my understanding...

 

Sounds reasonable to me, i just could not see how this bit of dried stuff, could cause any issues myself.

 

I believe that the clock spring is cleanable

but I don't know how to access it in a cassette?

 

There are four clips on the spool, holding the ribbon, when released, the spool can be removed.