A clock sping carries the wires for the airbag and horn on cars with airbag it can also carry wire for other buttons like radio, cruse control...... Etc on other cars equipt with such. The clock spring is a coil of flat wires that are designed in a certain way that it can only be rotated a set amount of times in each direction before it damages the wire. So if you adjust it while the steering wheel is off and dont put it back to its set position you could damage it when you go on full lock. I'm not very good at explain things so i hope you got the jist