going down the road like usual and all the sudden the air bag light on the cluster comes on, dings, goes off for a few seconds, then comes back on. It is becoming more frequent, but what the heck is going on? I also notice the buttons for cruise do not work like the used too. I have to push the buttons a few times before they work. Any ideas? I am stumped.

 

Clockspring probably needs replaced. It's an easy job, as long as you have a steering wheel puller.

 

That happened on my old truck, was more frequent after going to the car wash or when snow was melting on windshield. It was random though. The dinging means your air bags won't work. The 3 rams Iv'e had have never deployed air bags despite rear ending a newer impala and bowing my front bumper into a u-shape. And on another time I totaled a 01 ram and two other vehicles. Was going 35 to 40 when I hit the rear corner of a parked car.
Cruise control problem would be a separate issue.
Air bags are controlled from a control module buried above the center hump and below the dash, I think.

 

The cruise control buttons can go bad, but you can get a new switch module and replace it. I saw a video on youtube of a guy replacing the cruise control switch on his dodge ram, and it didn`t look all that hard to do.

 

I had an old Durango, I had an airbag light on, and my cruise control buttons didn't work. I replaced the clockspring and all was fixed. When you turn your steering wheel, does it make any metallic grinding noises?

 

i did hear a dragging noise turning left, only for a moment and it never happened again. Sounded like plastic on plastic. Now that I think about it after that happened is when the issue started. The more I read about the clockspring I am thinking thats it.
thanks for the responses all. Any procedure to change it out?

 

Grab the 98 service manual from this thread. Procedure is in there.

 

Exactly what HeyYou said. It's simple as hell. Unfortunately this is a common failure part, and in some models it was even replaced under a recall I believe.