In the 6 years I've owned this van, the airbag light has come on a few
times, stayed on for several days, and then stayed out for
months/years.  Now that I want to sell it, the pesky light is back, and
is on more than it is off (bumps in the road set it on/off
occasionally).  Looking at the service manual, I see that the connector
on the airbag computer (located under the front passenger seat
carpeting) has a built in jumper which grounds the low side of the
airbag lamp, illuminating it,  when you pull the connector off of the
computer.  When the connector is seated properly, the jumper is
supposed to open, and let the computer control the airbag lamp.
Apparently the jumper is an anti-tampering device.  I suspect that the
jumper is not fully retracted and is making intermittent contact and
falsely lighting the airbag lamp.  I want to pull off the connector to
inspect/repair the jumper, but the manual repeatedly warns that you
should go thru a lengthy procedure to disarm the airbag circuitry
before attempting ANY repairs, and another lengthy procedure to re-arm
the system afterwards.  They warn that if you don't, you risk
unintentional airbag deployment.  Do I really need to go thru these
procedures before unplugging the connector from the airbag computer?
Wouldn't it be enough to pull the SIR fuse and wait an hour or so?  It
will be hard to sell a car with the airbag lamp on, but harder to sell
if I accidentally deploy one or more airbags.  The disarm procedure
involves ripping out a bunch of trim panels, and I don't want to mess
with that unless absolutely necessary.

TIA,
Paul